A number of indigenously developed engineering equipment are currently in service with the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. A number of new combat engineering equipment newly developed by DRDO are on the verge of entering into service, further reducing the dependence of the Army on cost prohibitive imported equipment.
Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (VRDE) Ahmednagar, one of the premier laboratories of DRDO, have developed a range of combat engineering equipment which includes the Armoured Engineering Reconnaissance Vehicle (AERV), Armoured Amphibious Dozer (AAD) and the NBC Reconnaissance Vehicle.
The AERV and AAD are designed to provide engineering support in both offensive and defensive operations in plains, desert and riverine terrain. The AERV is designed to carry out terrestrial and riverbed survey to facilitate construction of assault bridges across water obstacles. The AAD is capable of providing integral engineering support to battle groups in offensive operations for construction of assault bridges and for construction of tracks, thereby improving the mobility of advancing armoured columns.
The NBC Reconnaissance vehicle is designed to diagnose the existence of life endangering nuclear, biological and chemical contaminants in the atmosphere during NBC warfare and cordon off such areas.
All of these equipments are based on tracked BMP 2 amphibious Infantry Combat Vehicle, which allows it to operate on land and on water bodies. The onboard equipment in each of these vehicles can be operated by the crew in hatch down condition from within the confines of the armour-protected vehicles.
Ordnance Factory at Medak has been entrusted with the responsibility of production of these vehicles in collaboration with Bharat Electronics Limited, Pune.
The AERVs are already under limited series production and have entered service with the Corps of Engineers recently.
New first off production vehicles in the category of AAD and NBC Recce Vehicle have been realized and a demonstration of capabilities of these vehicles to the Users is planned at VRDE, Ahmednagar, on 03 March 2008, in the presence of visiting Engineer-in-Chief, Lt Gen RR Goswami. Flagging off of new serials of AERV to be handed over to the Army is also planned on this occasion.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
"New" engineering vehicles go into service in India
Saturday, March 1, 2008
India to make purchase from Bumar
Various sources are reporting that Poland's state-run Bumar is set to sign a US$1.2bn deal with India.
The agreement purports to include: Kroton de-mining vehicles, Loara mobile anti-aircraft units and self-propelled cannons. Several sources mention "WZT-3 armoured cars".
To our knowledge, the WZT-3 is actually a tracked armoured recovery vehicle capable of coming to the aid of damaged combat vehicles with it's hydraulic cargo crane, main towing winch of 840 kN and rigid towing shaft.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Lots of activity at Tata
India's Tata Group is a huge industrial organization. This week has seen several major announcements.
Tata and Boeing announced a collaboration to handle an initial 500 million dollars of defence-related aerospace component manufacture. Then Sikorsky and Tata have firmed up in a joint helicopter manufacturing project in India. Finally,EADS and Tata have joined together to bid on a one-billion dollar program to supply tactical communication systems to the Indian army.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
BAE and M&M in talks
Indian vehicle manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra has announced that it is in discussion with BAE Systems to develop an Indian MRAP. It is expected this new vehicle will be based on the BAE RG-31.
Currently M&M supply armouring solutions for light combat vehicles, multi-utility and sports utility vehicles. These are already in service with the Indian Army, Air Force and the Paramilitary and State Police Forces.
Monday, January 14, 2008
India, US meet to discuss cooperation
"India and the US Monday began four days of high-level talks here focusing on expansion of defence cooperation, including in production and procurement of arms and equipment. The Indian delegation is led by Defence Secretary Vijay Singh while the US team is headed Eric Edelman, under secretary of defence for policy."
