SAGAR, MP, Oct 6:
Hundreds of school children and college students got an opportunity to familiarise themselves with myriad aspects of the world’s second-largest military force—the Indian Army—at a two-day ‘Know Your Army’ exhibition organised here by the Southern Command.
On display were amphibious and anti-landmine tanks, artillery, bridge-laying equipment, a rocket launcher etc.
The exhibition, which generated tremendous excitement among the students, concluded yesterday in the Cantonment area. Sagar also boasts the Mahar Regimental Centre.
Remarkable advances in indigenous tank technology have made the Army the proud possessor of the main battle tank ‘Arjun’ but the T-72 was given its due by being provided pride of place at a three-day ‘Know Your Army’ exhibition that took place earlier in Bhopal.
Other hardware on display included a mechanised infantry vehicle, air defence guns, bridging equipment, mines, anti-tank missiles, night vision-equipped supporting weapons and a mobile surgical station.
The T-72 has a primary armament comprising a 125-mm smooth-bore gun utilising an electro-hydraulic auto-loader. The secondary armament is a 7.62-mm coaxial machine gun.
Power is supplied by a 582 KW (780 hp) diesel engine and the crew comprises a commander, driver and gunner. The weapon system is equipped with a laser range finder and thermal jackets on the main gun.
Inducted into the Army Medical Corps (AMC) in 2001, in the post-Kargil scenario, the surgical station has not witnessed a conflict but was deployed during Operation Parakram.
The station boasts of a “containerised mobile operation theatre (OT).” There is an air-conditioned pre-operation area, the AC main OT, AC post-operation area and a sterilisation-cum-store area. The areas are housed within four army trucks arranged in the shape of a cross with their rears opening onto a common tented platform that has ramps.
“The fifth truck has a 45-kilo-volt ampere generator. The station can conduct at least a dozen surgeries daily and tackle at least four patients at a time. We have a ‘Ward on Wheels’ system where three more vehicles are mobilised for accommodating eight patients each. Four ramps will be attached in battle conditions,” an AMC officer explained.
The United States Army also possesses such stations but the sheer efficacy made the Singapore Army contact their Indian counterparts for the facility.
In high-altitude areas, the station can be set up at base camps and casualties conveyed there—by chopper—from the summits. Ten to 15 personnel are sufficient for setting up the station. At any given time, one surgeon, anaesthetist, operating room assistant staff and nursing staff are present.
An officer of the rank of lieutenant-colonel is in charge of the unit and each of the trucks has its fire-extinguishing system. Providentially, there were no major casualties during Op Parakram.
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