IAF to begin night operations in Naxal-hit areas

Intending to go all out against the naxals, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is all geared up for starting day and night operations in the naxal-hit regions and has even asked the Union Home Ministry to have more foot on the ground.

 

 

Admitting that lack of infrastructure on the ground has been a very big concern in operating helicopters in the region even for defensive purposes, Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne on Friday said that the force has requested the state governments to spruce up infrastructure in the areas as the helicopters have to be parked in open during the monsoon season.

With IAF completing three years of its engagement in anti-naxal operations in December, the IAF Chief said that he does not see an end to it in near future. However, Air Chief Marshal also ruled out augmenting assets for the operation saying the force has deployed six Mi-17 helicopters and they are “more than adequate”.

“We are close to getting Mi-17 V-5 helicopters and in due course of time we will be able to switch to full night operations. These are far more capable aircraft in terms of safety and the helicopters will be able to access the areas which they were not able to meet,” Air Chief Marshal Browne said during his annual press conference ahead of the Air Force Day on October 8. The IAF helicopters have flown more than 5,000 sorties and facilitated movement of more than 30,000 paramilitary troops during their deployment in the anti-naxal operations.

Sources said the decision has come in the wake of the observation that the paramilitary forces deployed in the region also stop their operations post sun-down and the naxalites were having a “free-run”. So it was decided to scale up the operations with the air support for casualty evacuation and troops movement being made available through day and night.

The IAF Chief also made it clear that there was requirement of more effective operations by the men on the ground.  “We have also explained to the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) that you can t rely on heavy-lift helicopters for every little job that you have. You also need to start clearing the roads as well and the foot on the ground should start making the difference. We are there to support them in terms of logistics support, transportation, casualty evacuation and etc,” he said.

IAF has also requested the state governments to set up infrastructure for its men and machine on a semi-permanent basis.

“As far as the infrastructure in naxal-affected areas is concerned, yes, we have a problem. We were sure of certain amount of infrastructure which was to come up by the state government unfortunately that has not happened,” Air Chief Marshal Browne said.

 

He said the rules of engagement for the force will not change in the anti-naxal operations. “The rules of engagement do not change. There is no offensive fire unless they are fired upon,” he said.

Bureaucratic indecision augmented Assam’s sorrow, accepts MoD

In a shocking revelation of facts, the Ministry of Defence revealed on Monday that when Assam was burning due to ethnic violence last month, the bureaucrats sitting in South and North Blocks separated just by a road delayed the deployment of the Army by following archaic rules and doing cumbersome paper work.

 In peaceful times....

Explaining the inordinate delay in deploying Army in riot-hit Assam when the toll was mounting, the State Government passed the buck to the Defence Ministry by merely sending a request by fax on July 21, which being a Saturday, the staff at the South Block completed its duty by asking for an “assessment report” from the Army, losing precious three days.

“State government of Assam requested the MoD through a fax on 21 July 2012 (Saturday) evening for deployment of Army in Kokrajhar. The MoD on learning of the request sought the assessment of the situation from the Army as they were already in deployment for counter-insurgency duties in Assam,” Defence Minister AK Antony said in a written reply to the Parliament on Monday.

Even as the mandarins in the South Block were sitting on the request for deployment, 53 people were killed in Assam with maximum casualties and rioting happening between July 21 and 24.

Despite repeated requisition from the local administration in Assam, the Army refused force deployment in absence of the Defence Ministry’s approval, mandatory as per the Standard Operating Procedures (SoP) laid down nearly two decades ago. The Defence Ministry also did not spring into action until the state government faxed a second request on July 24th for deployment of Army in aid to civil authorities in the districts of Kokrajhar, Dhubri and Chirang. This was also followed by a request from MHA.

“MHA on 24 July 2012 requested for deployment of Army. MoD issued directions for deployment of Army in aid to civil authorities on the same day,” Antony added.

Sources reveal that there has been a complete laxity from all the stakeholders – the state government, the MoD and the MHA. “All the three failed miserably to assess the urgency of the situation. In the age of telecommunication the state government was busy sending faxes to the Defence Ministry even on a Saturday when the Ministry functions on a lean staff. The more proactive measure would have been the Chief Minister, Home Minister and the Defence Minister being in touch with each other from the day one,” sources in the armed forces said.

Eventually on July 25, the Army was deployed, and what ensued was the blame game between the State government and the Home Ministry in one camp and the Defence Ministry on the other.

MHA's evaluation of OFB produced automatic assault rifles complete

The Automatic Assault Rifle manufactured by Ordnance Factor, Tiruchirapalli has reached the trial stage. Dubbed as an alternative to Kalashnikov AK-47, in vogue with the Indian Army's special and counter-insurgency forces, the 7.62 mm home-developed automatic assault rifle has been evaluated by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the weapon is being prepared for "extensive user trials" - in this case the State Police Forces.

The State Police Forces intends to use it for countering insurgency operations.

Sleuths get access to Blackberry Messenger

New Delhi: The stalemate between the Government and the Canadian manufacturer of Blackberry has been resolved as the Research in Motion (RIM) Ltd has given intelligence agencies real time access to its Messenger service, implying that the sleuths can now read the messages sent from one Blackberry to Blackberry.

Also the government has got a backdoor access to Blackberry Enterprise Server as the agencies will be provided access as per specific requests to the service providers.

 
Confirming the news, sources said that the move would give a great boost to the counter-terrorism efforts of the government. “For Blackberry Enterprise Server, agencies would have indirect access through the service providers, who then will take specific queries to RIM. However, the Government is looking for real time access to the servers. This part is still being worked at.
 

A team of Government officials has already inspected the server. It is not exactly the solution wanted by MHA, which would have preferred a  capability to decode messages themselves so that they could conduct surveillance without disclosing the name of the suspects to the Blackberry manufacturing firm.
 

Next on the agenda is interception of emails through Yahoo and Gmail with the MHA directing the Department of Telecom to ask the service providers to ensure that all emails accessed from India should be routed through servers located in India.

Existing fleet idling, MHA goes for more choppers

New Delhi, Feb 5: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is purchasing more helicopters from Russia to support its anti-naxal operations even as its existing fleet is found to be gravely underutilized owing to lack of expertise to operate and maintain the machines.

The Ministry has fleets of six Mi-17 helicopters and six indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruvs. To add to this it has asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) to buy an additional six Mi-17 V5 helicopters from Russia, with which the latter is negotiating a follow on order of 59 helicopters.

Officials at the Home Ministry said the procurement was necessitated as the indigenous helicopters have become old and have a poor serviceability record. “The 2001-vintage home built Dhruvshave been grounded for checks following a crash in January. Owing to their low serviceability we have decided to purchase an additional Mi-17 V5 helicopters from Russia,” sources added.

“We will also be suggesting to HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd) to replace the helicopters with the new variants,” the sources added.

With the government yet to decide on launching an air offensive against the naxals, the ministry intends to use these machines primarily for ferrying troops and material. Presently, the IAF has deployed four Mi-17 helicopters for this purpose.

The Dhruv helicopters maintained by the Border Security Force (BSF) have been grounded for checks after one of them crashed in January. The BSF is also maintaining the Mi-17 fleet of the Ministry procured in 2003.

In a scathing Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report in September 2011, it was revealed that the MHA purchased six Russian Mi-17 helicopters at a cost of Rs. 129.29 in 2003. However, as it lacked expertise to operate these machines, the Home Ministry requested the IAF to take custody of these helicopters in March 2004. Between July 2004 and March 2005, the helicopters were returned to the BSF and since then were positioned at Safdarjung Airport, instead of being optimally utilized for meeting its operational requirement in North-East and Jammu and Kashmir areas.

Moreover, the air wing of BSF for which the choppers were brought continued to hire helicopters for airlifting and dropping rations to its troops in Jammu and Kashmir and north-east area. Also it had to cough up a sum of Rs. 9.32 crore as license fee and conservancy charges for parking of the helicopters to Safdarjung Airport. Despite government’s sanction of funds for construction of hangars and infrastructure at five places - Srinagar, Jammu, Bhuj, Assam and Tripura - the construction of hangars had not even commenced as of December 2010.