NEW DELHI – Indian Armed Forces have planned to deploy the latest Americanweapons system at border with China.
The weapon system will be deployed first during war games exercisecodenamed ‘HimVijay’ along Indo- China border in Arunachal Pradesh.
These latest weapons include M777 ultra-light howitzers and Chinookheavy-lift helicopters.
The exercise HimVijay, planned by India in the northeast will mainly testthe warfighting abilities of the newly-raised 17 Mountain Strike Corps inArunachal Pradesh.The Indian Air Force (IAF) will also be a part of the plans which willprovide the aerial elements for the real war-type drills.
As per reports, the 17 Mountain Strike Corps has been provided with theM777 Ultra Light Howitzers as they will be in an attack mode against the‘enemy’ locations and would require the lighter guns during “HimVijay”.
Recently inducted American system planned to be utilized during the wargames will be the Chinook heavy-lift choppers that were formally inductedinto the Air Force on March 25 at the Chandigarh airbase. However, it isyet to be inducted in the Northeast by the Air Force.
The war games have been planned by the Eastern Command for the last sixmonths and are being implemented by the Panagarh-based 17 Strike Corps andthe Tezpur-based 4 Corps.
Read Top Stories
Reportedly, the Indian Army will induct a total of 145 M777 howitzers inservice. These M777 Howitzers will be used mainly for warfare inmountainous terrains. The adoption is only due to its lightweight andability to be airdropped by the Chinook heavy-lift helicopters in the highaltitude areas in the Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.
Over 5,000 troops of Mountain Strike Corps of the Indian will carry out amassive war game to practice real war-like situation on the eastern frontof India.
As per official sources, the troops of the Tezpur-based 4 Corps will bedeployed at a high altitude location to defend their territory. On theother hand, a brigade-sized force combined of over 2,500 troops of the 17Mountain Strike Corps will be airlifted by the IAF to launch an offensiveagainst them.
To airlift these troops, IAF will use C-17, C-130J Super Hercules and theAN-32 from Baghdogra in West Bengal and deploy them close to the ‘war zone’in Arunachal Pradesh.
