New Delhi: The Army is set to initiate the trials of the US-made Stryker armoured infantry combat vehicles here in both deserts and high-altitude Ladakh soon.
Sources in the defence establishment said the Army is looking to procure about 530 infantry combat vehicles (ICVs).
As ThePrint first reported in February last year, the two countries had decided on the Stryker — the eight-wheel-drive combat vehicle developed by General Dynamics Land Systems — as one of the joint-production technologies to be pursued as part of the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).
The project had come up for discussion last month between visiting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and NSA Ajit Doval.
Sources said the talks between India and the US are “at an advanced stage”.
One reason the Stryker is under consideration, according to sources, is that Indian vendors are unable to meet the qualitative requirements (QR). However, the Stryker also has its limitations.
The Army is looking to procure new ICVs to replace the Russian-origin BMP-2 vehicles in use with the mechanised infantry.
There are a total of 50 mechanised infantry battalions in the Army. Of these, while 10 are dedicated to recce and support, the other 40 are standard mechanised infantry battalions.
Among the recce and support battalions, five were to be equipped with wheeled vehicles and five with tracked ones. On the other hand, among the standard mechanised infantry battalions, about 30 are tracked and approximately 10 were meant to be wheeled.
However, because there are wheeled vehicles, all used the BMPs which are tracked.
It is these 10 battalions that the Army is seeking to re-equip with the new ICVs.
The Army, which issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) over a decade and a half ago, received responses from 15 vendors but none could meet the requirements fully.
In case India zeroes in on the Strykers, there will be limited off-the-shelf purchase under the US’s foreign military sales (FMS) initiative. It will then be followed by joint production in India by means of a joint venture.
This will also help India configure the vehicles in accordance with its requirements.
If the Stryker vehicle is finalised, sources said its capabilities will have to be altered to suit high-altitude areas such as eastern Ladakh, where tensions along the Line of Actual Control have been ongoing between India and China for the past four years.
One of the big drawbacks of the Stryker is that it’s not an amphibious vehicle. Another source said that each vehicle will have to be terrain- and weather- specific.
Sources said the decision will be taken progressively after a “holistic analysis”, which will include an evaluation of the technical capabilities such as mobility, terrain negotiation in various conditions, protection to troops as well as lethality parameters.
One of India’s conditions is co-development of Stryker with an infused Indian defence ecosystem. India is also looking at the transfer of critical technologies like the Javelin anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) that are integrated with the Stryker.
Asked about the wheeled armoured platforms (WhAP) developed by Tata and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), sources said these serve different purposes.
They explained that the WhAP cannot be compared to ICVs. They claimed that the product does not offer firepower, a sight system or even a fire-control system. However, it should be noted that the WhAP has several versions added and has showcased its capabilities with multiple turrets, sight system and a fire control system.
In addition to this, the Army is also looking to procure 105 wheeled armoured personnel carriers (APCs) for recce and support. The Request for Information (RFI) for this is under formulation.
This is an updated version of the report
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