14 Facts About Indian Army

1. The Indian Army will induct the HAL Light Utility Helicopter to replace its ageing fleet of Chetaks and Cheetahs, some of which were inducted more than three decades ago.

2. In 1992, the Indian Army began inducting women officers in non-medical roles.

3. The modern Indian Army wears distinctive parade uniforms characterised by variegated turbans and waist-sashes in regimental colours.

4. The Indian Army is putting large numbers of rocket launchers into service, with the indigenously-developed Pinaka multi barrel rocket launcher to equip 22 regiments by the end of the next decade.

5. The Indian Army is large enough to devote several corps to the strike role.

6. The current combat doctrine of the Indian Army is based on effectively utilising holding formations and strike formations.

7. The Indian Army successfully conducted Operation Golden Bird in 1995 for counter-insurgency in northeast India.

8. The Indian Army sent a contingent to Sri Lanka in 1987 as a part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force.

9. In 2004, the Indian Army was spending an estimated US$2 million a month to support its personnel stationed in the region.

10. The Indian Army continues to control all the Siachen Glacier and its tributary glaciers.

11. The Indian Army secured the strategic Sia La and Bilafond La mountain passes, and by 1985 more than 1,000 square miles of territory 'claimed' by Pakistan was under Indian control.

12. On 20 November 1971, the Indian Army moved the 14 Punjab Battalion 45 Cavalry into Garibpur, a strategically important town near India's border with East Pakistan, and successfully captured it.

13. In 1962, the Indian Army was ordered to move to the Thag La ridge located near the border between Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh and about three miles north of the disputed McMahon Line.

14. The Indian Army originated from the armies of the East India Company, which eventually became the British Indian Army, and the armies of the princely states, which finally became the national army after independence.