hey guys indian army is raising 8 special forces battalions(8000 troops),whose specific role would be disrupt enemy border installations and nuclear facilities.
here check out this article and link ,it also contains some information on the us special forces:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front_page&file_name=story4.txt&counter_img=4
By the year 2010, India will have eight battalions of elite Special Forces capable of precision strikes at enemy nuclear capabilities with state-of-the-art equipment.
The Government has sanctioned Rs 1,000 crore for the purpose and the Army is ready with its wish list for joint training and procuring hi-tech weapon and communication systems.
Each battalion will have the strength of 1,000 airborne commandos trained to operate behind enemy lines, and cripple their war time response mechanism.
The decision will enable the Indian armed forces to develop conventional capabilities in an environment where some countries in the Indian subcontinent are on the nuclear threshold.
These highly trained Special Forces commandos will achieve the strategic objectives laid down by the political leadership as chances of an all-out war are few in the present day international scenario.
The Army already has five battalions of the Special Forces and in 2002, the NDA Government had given the go-ahead for raising five more units. But the eight new battalions will be in the airborne mode and trained to take out enemy's N-capacities. The airborne mode will enable the Special Forces to carry out a variety of sensitive and surgical strikes.
Elaborating upon the importance of this decision, sources said the Special Forces would now have the capabilities to inflict heavy damage on strategic targets in an enemy country including nuclear installations, communication nerve centres and crucial war waging capabilities.
Given this backdrop, Army chief General JJ Singh, now on a seven-day visit to the US, is likely to hold extensive talks with his counterparts about joint training and procurement of hi-tech weapons and communication systems for the Special Forces.
India is keen on an intensive interaction with US Special Forces as far as training is concerned as the US has the most advanced Special Forces organisation with a separate command structure.
Backed by a budget equivalent to the entire Indian defence allocations, the US Special Forces has its own dedicated fixed wing and rotary aircraft, sources said. The pilots flying these aircraft are trained in night flying and only those pilots who have logged more than 3,000 hours of night flying are commissioned into the Special Forces.
With more funds coming for raising the Special Forces, the Army now wants to have three-dimensional capabilities of operating in air, land and underwater.
In fact, the Army is keen to acquire equipment for these operations through the FMS route, sources said. The list includes combat underwater diving equipment, laser target designators, underwater rifles, modular acquisition devices, diver propulsion vehicles, underwater cameras, kayaks, underwater global positioning systems (GPS) and GPS map navigation systems.
Explaining the reason for having exercises with the US, they said the US and Israel Special Forces are rated to be the best in the world and joint training with Israel has political dimensions, sources said.
While India has no problem in acquiring weapon systems from Israel, political reservations have not allowed the two countries to have a joint drill. Sources added the NDA Government had taken a policy decision to allow the Israelis and the Indian armed forces to have joint exercises but no further development took place.