Thanks for replying sir.
The school in Belgaum is a commando school and not a Sniper school and if the Ghataks are doing Snipers job then common sense only doubts how effective they might be...coz a sniper is a sniper..there are some special skills which a sniper requires.
Secondly sir...all twenty Ghataks cannot be a Sniper at a time..like in a QRT which is of 40 men or 60 men there is 1 or max 2 sniper...so actually sir i doubt if there might be 20 snipers at a given time in a battalion.
From your reply what i gathered is that:-
1.There is no DEDICATED Sniper school.
2.No one really knows how many Snipers operate in a battalion.
3.And from the above two points i doubt if the Officers of the IA use the Sniper to full effect.
PRATEEK sir...can you tell me what is the role of a Sniper in a IA infantry battalion.
Your three points are absolutely correct
Strange , but that is - There is no dedicated Sniper Training Academy or dedicated Sniper Force
Indian military doctrine doesn't employ snipers .
Our thought process has always been of the conventional view of battle (and terrain) prevailing within the IA . But gradually idea is getting to use Snipers as an asset .
The school in Belgaum is a commando school and not a Sniper school and if the Ghataks are doing Snipers job then common sense only doubts how effective they might be...coz a sniper is a sniper..there are some special skills which a sniper requires.
I never said Sniper training school , i said Infantry school .
But Belgaum training does involve a Sniper course for all Ghataks .
And these SP commandos do form part of every IB .
yeah doubt is natural but they are damn good at Sniping
The Telegraph - Calcutta : Nation
Nice article , try to go through 4th last para .
Secondly sir...all twenty Ghataks cannot be a Sniper at a time..like in a QRT which is of 40 men or 60 men there is 1 or max 2 sniper...so actually sir i doubt if there might be 20 snipers at a given time in a battalion.
No you get wrong side , I never meant 20 Snipers .
I meant all 20 Ghataks have Sniper training .
At a time only 2 operate as 2 men to a team who remain a team as long as circumstances permit - One as Spotter and a shooter
PRATEEK sir...can you tell me what is the role of a Sniper in a IA infantry battalion.
Well Snipers act as true Force --multipliers ,
They do provide accurate, discriminatory, long-range small-arms fire power against a Long-range target hindered by location
visibility;
security and
stealth requirements
+plus avoidance of collateral damage
controlled intensity of conflict
or rules of engagement.
what we missed earlier was snipers were considered more of a designated marksmen than a
stand-alone strategic assets to deny freedom of movement to the enemy .
Snipers bcoz of stealth/camo can act as strategic Reco asset , this is why some of best snipers come from special forces units as they know how to operate with stealth.
For a scenario -
In Kashmir - Sniper teams are nearly always deployed during raids on terrorist hideouts and sometimes during cordon-and-search ops .
For rest - As I said I am not from Infantry so Flaming Arrow or Indian Army sir would be best person to ask these questions .