It is really laudable that after central government’s all round initiatives, reportedly the army has carried out one of the biggest ever transformations to meet modern warfare challenges creating a pool of over one lakh drone operatives across the force.
Bhairav, the latest Special Force raised by the Indian Army is specialized in tackling the challenges of modern warfare, as all operatives are capable of handling drones and use them in real operations for targeting bases and formations inside enemy territory. The Bhairav battalions raised by Army Headquarters with lessons from military conflicts in mind have been created to provide a dedicated force for high-speed offensive operations to carry out the Special Forces tasking at multiple levels as per requirements.
Already, the army has raised around 15 of these battalions and it is planning to raise around 25 of them in total in the near future. Although, the personnel trained under this initiative are supposed to bolster India’s attacking capacity but the concerned quarters should also pay attention to another challenge which the country is confronting along the borders with Pakistan, the frequent incursions by the enemy drones for smuggling arms and ammunition, and narcotics consignments besides to carry out recce along the IB and LoC.
The Punjab State and Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory are particularly facing the challenge of adversary drones as these unmanned aerial vehicles have been extensively used by their Pakistani handlers for giving concrete shape to its nefarious designs in context with creating unrest in J&K and other parts of the country.
In the latest incident reported from Chakroi village of Jammu’s R S Pura sub district, the security forces have recovered a suspected ‘nano drone’, which surely has raised the eyebrows of the probing agencies as these flying objects are difficult to be detected but are detrimental to security in the region.
The Bhairav Battalion initiative is imperative for enhancing defence capabilities but looking at the misdemeanor by the Pakistan, there is dire need to focus on tackling the threat of enemy drones with extreme efficacy as these UAVs possess the potential to dent the defence line with impunity and therefore India has to take steps by leveraging technology and making out of the box changes as conventional methods are not meeting the objectives of containing this menace fully.
As the Bhairav battalions have been created as part of the force’s restructuring, which have been raised in line with the requirements of modern technology, new thought process and as per the new operational requirements, it has become necessary that the scope of these units should be widened to also address the challenges like the incursions by the enemy drones as curbing this is quite significant for containing Pakistan from abetting terrorism in the country especially in J&K and Punjab, which have lately become vulnerable to drones originating from the soil of western neighbour of India.
