NEW DELHI – Seeking to bolster its armoured capabilities during wars, theIndian Army is moving a proposal expected to be worth over Rs 2,200 crorefor buying 150 infantry combat vehicles, which provide safety to troopsfrom small arms firing in the battlefield.

“A proposal to acquire 150 infantry combat vehicles expected to be worthover Rs 2,200 crore is going to be placed before a high-level meeting ofthe defence ministry headed by Nirmala Sitharaman next week for approval,”government sources told Mail Today.

Army sources said the new *combat* vehicles would be acquired for use bythe arms and services which support the infantry and other combat arms inthe war such as the Corps of Signals, Artillery, Combat Engineers andothers.

“These arms are supposed to move in into the enemy territory along with thetank regiments and infantry troops at a rapid pace in case of a war in thedesert terrain,” they said.

The artillery officers use the combat vehicles as observation posts fordirecting the fire of their howitzer on the enemy locations while thesignals officers use them for establishing line of communications.

To increase the pace of military modernisation, the defence ministrylink>underSitharaman has increased the number of defence acquisition council meetingsto remove the cobwebs around the files and clear the cases for acquisition.

In February itself, Sitharaman would be holding three such meetings to pushimportant cases of the Indian Army to clear the procurement of lightmachine guns, close quarter carbines and other important equipment for theforce.

The entire ICV fleet of the Indian Army is acquired from the Russians,including the BMP-1 and the BMP-2, which have been acquired in differentbatches at regular intervals by the force.

The ICVs are mainly used by the mechanised infantry regiment (MIR) whichhas 27 battalions under it deployed mainly along the desert and plainsborder with Pakistan.

The strength of the army’s mechanised infantry battalions was recentlyincreased by four battalions, with the brigade of the guards raising threenew units and one for the MIR.

The Indian Army is also looking at the prospect of acquiring a newfuturistic infantry combat vehicle, which it wants to be given to itsmechanised formations to tackle the challenges and situations of themodern-day warfare.

In the project to procure 2,300 futuristic infantry combat vehicles (FICV)for the Indian Army, which has been held up for over a decade, apart fromthe state-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), which has been nominated forthe project, L&T, Tata Motors, Reliance, Mahindra, and Tata PowerSED-Titagarh Wagons are also in the race.