Indian Para Special Forces, Marcos, Garud commandos to get more lethal weapons

Team NSG (02 officers+4JCOs+30 commandos) and 20 MARCOS (including 2 officers) undertaking counter terrorist exercise including hostage rescue. Photo credit: SpokespersonNavy Twitter handle

India shares border with two nuclear-armed adversaries while several terror groups operate in Jammu and Kashmir and some Northeastern states resulting in its defence forces perpetually being on a state of high alert. The Indian Special Forces commandos are routinely called in to neutralise terrorists and in the recent past have also undertaken surgical strikes inside Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.

To ensure that the Special Forces commandos are equipped with the latest and most lethal weapons to carry out their missions, the Defence Ministry is on a buying spree for state-of-art rifles and other weapons platforms for them. According to The Times of India, sources in the Defence Ministry have said the commandos of Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Indian Navy will soon get sophisticated and specialised weapons manufactured in Finland, Sweden, Italy, Russia, Israel and Germany to carry out their deadly missions.

According to the source, the surgical strikes on terror launch pads in PoK on the intervening night of September 28-29, 2018 by India Army's Para Special Forces led to more focus on the weapons being used by the commandos.

The Para SF commandos will soon have Finnish Sako sniper rifles, Swedish Carl Gustaf Mark-4 lightweight rocket-launchers, Italian Beretta pistols with silencers in their arsenal as the deal has already been finalised with the respective defence companies.

The over 1,000 Marine Commandos (Marcos) of the Indian Navy are getting Russian VSS suppressed sniper rifles (Vintorez) which can fire the heavy subsonic 9×39mm SP5 cartridge and armor-piercing SP6 cartridge. According to The Times of India, the Marcos will also have air-droppable rubberised inflatable boats, remotely-operated underwater vehicles for explosive disposal, combat free-fall parachutes, hands-free power ascenders and opposed boarding equipment and two "midget submarines" under a Rs 2,017 crore project.

The IAF currently has 15 flights of Garud commandos with 900 personnel and the force is already raising 12 more flights of the specially trained troops. After getting 65 micro-UAVs, Garud commandos will soon have more power sniper rifles, thermal sights to track and take down targets in the dark and breaching ammunition to destroy door deadbolts, locks, and hinges.