What is Nipun, F-INSAS and LCA?

In another historical decision of making armed forces more powerful by having major developments in indigenous defence production, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on 16th August, 2022 handed over new weapons systems to Indian Army with the motive of boosting firepower and enable its personnel to tackle modern wars.

New Weapons Systems include the latest anti-personnel mine Nipun, Futuristic Infantry Soldier as a System (F-INSAS), the Landing Craft Assault (LCA) as well as a drone system which was handed over to the Indian Army from the defence minister. It aims to bolster the strength of Indian Army by giving it an edge in futuristic warfare as well as in hilly battle terrains.

What is F-INSAS?

F-INSAS stands for Future Infantry Soldier As A System. It is designed specifically for an infantry soldier with the aim of converting him into a ‘self-contained fighting machine’. Operational capabilities will be enhanced with its usage as the soldier will be armed with modern gear and equipment which has many qualities like easy to carry, effective in all-weather, comfortable with all-terrain, cost-effective and low maintenance.

The best part about F-INSAS is that it’s indigenously developed by Defence Public Sector Undertakings and private Indian industries including the DRDO and the ordnance factories ecosystem. It is designed as per the needs of Indian Army and based on the rough sketch that had been already provided by Army to these organisations. Later on, similar programmes in other countries like the UK, France, Israel and Germany were studied by DRDO and ordnance factories for this project. As per the reports F-INSAS is still undergoing some developments to upgrade it for each and every kind of conflict situations.

The F-INSAS gear includes ballistic helmets, ballistic goggles and bullet proof vests. It provides protection against 9 mm bullets and ammunition from AK-47 rifles. It is also equipped with a mounted night-vision device which is placed in the helmet and it has also a facility of installing a thermal imager sight to convert infrared energy from objects to thermal images as according to some situation Thermal images are helpful in long distance viewing. It is also equipped with a hands-free communications set which is secured and advanced.

The F-INSAS has to facility to arm the soldiers with AK-203 assault rifles with the holographic vision of upto 200 metres. The AK-203 is a Russia-India joint venture which is manufactured in India only at Korwa near Amethi. Other than this F-INSAS is also equipped with multi-mode hand grenade and a multi-purpose knife for hand-to-hand combat.

The Nipun landmines will act as the first line of defence against enemy infantry or tanks or infiltration attempts by terrorists. It was developed by the Pune-based Armament Research and Development Establishment, which comes under DRDO with the aid of Indian company.

As per the report, these landmines are quite effective and will bolster the strength of Army arsenal as they are designed as per the advanced  model and their sensors are also more powerful than the ones which are already used by the army. They can be deployed in large numbers as they are not big in size.

What is LCA?

LCA stands for Landing Craft Assault. It aims to help the Army in mobilising its forces and deploying them across the terrain in eastern Ladakh where skirmishes with China near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) are constant and difficult to handle.

This system with better launch, speed and capacity to traverse water bodies aims to replace the boats that are generally used to transport across the lakes in the area. It’s manufacturing unit is Goa-based Aquarius ShipYard Limited.