NEW DELHI: The Sunday Standard has learnt that the Indian Special Forces, which carried out the successful cross-border surgical strikes, was actually working at one-sixth of its operational requirement of ‘combat-free fall parachutes’—specially designed for operations that have to be carried out in the cover of darkness in the enemy territory.
As India thumps its chest over its surgical strike in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the Indian Army is struggling to maintain its strike capability. At the time of the surgical strikes, the Indian Special Forces was working at 1/6th of its operational requirement of combat free-fall parachutes, designed for operations in darkness in enemy territory. Special Forces are trained in unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance and to carry out cross-border surgical strikes.
Sources in the establishment admit that Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) failed to develop the parachutes even after spending over `100 crore on them over 12 years. In the last trials in 2014, 18 out 25 of them parachutes failed and were classified as “seriously life threatening”. The parachutes can carry a weapons load up 300 kg.
“In the absence of such parachutes, our skills were going down. For a strike in enemy land, para drops avoid detection and cut down on travel,” a source explained.
The Special Forces also lack oxygen equipment, which is the main requirement for high altitude operations when a commando jumps from an aircraft from 25,000-30,000 feet and opens the parachute immediately to traverse distance into the enemy territory.
After Kargil in 1999, the Indian security establishment worked out a plan to more than double the strength of the Special Forces to carry out covert operations as the Army converted its three parachute battalions to Special Forces from 2001 to 2004 and added the fourth assault team in all Special Forces units. With an increase in Special Forces units, requirement of free fall parachutes rose.
Subsequently, the Army projected its requirement of 1,100 of such parachutes. While nearly 700 were promised by Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE) Kanpur to be developed indigenously, 400 of them were allowed to be bought from foreign players. But eventually, the UPA government in 2006 banned their import and suggested these be developed indigenously.
In its report last year, the CAG had red flagged ADRDE for using “substandard quality of material” for the parachutes, which had a failure rate of 75 per cent.
In 2014, however, some such parachutes were delivered along with the US-made transport aircraft C130J for IAF. Instead of giving them to the Special Forces, the IAF kept them for its Garud Commando unit.