September 14, 2005
Guerrillas in the MizoramMilitary
You always hear about our American special forces training the best of soldiers of foreign armies in the latest and greatest methods of killing terrorists and insurgents. It turns out that one of the finest killing schools in the world is in the jungles of Mizoram. MSN has a story about our troops attending the Counter Insurgency Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS):
An Indian army commander said Thursday the two-week training in unconventional warfare at the Counter Insurgency Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) at Vairengte in Mizoram in northeastern India begins Sep 13.“Apart from a rigorous drill on how to tackle an unconventional war or low intensity conflict, the training module would have a session of simulated anti-insurgency operations for the American soldiers,” a commander at the CIJWS told IANS requesting anonymity.
The school at Vairengte is considered as one of world’s most prestigious anti-terrorist institution with troops from several countries getting counter-insurgency training.
“The motto of this institute is to fight a guerrilla like a guerrilla,” the commander said. “The training module is non-conventional and once a soldier undergoes training here, he can face all deadly situations anywhere in the world.”
So what exactly will our American soldiers be faced with? A quick Google search finds this article from April of last year:
US troops are being fed venomous vipers, dogs and monkeys as part of military exercises to sharpen skills in jungle combat in India’s insurgency-torn northeastern state of Mizoram.
Ummm. Yeah. In all seriousness though I think it would be cool to train there. I couldn’t find any website for CIJWS, and that is probably how they like it. I did however find this website by a reporter(?) who visited the school:
However, a school is just a school - it ain’t quite a story. Unless it has functioned as the premier and only institution of its kind in the country for 30 years - and hardly any reporter has heard of it, let alone visit it. Then, it becomes a scoop. When we got a whiff of it, our martial ears tingled; we put out feelers among our khakied friends, who said they had no clue what we were talking about.Sure that we were being rebuffed, we became Ophelia, and brightened only after a CIJWS officer exclaimed, “How did you hear about the school? Hardly anyone in the army itself knows of us!” He immediately launched into we-are-completely-transparent-nothing-is-classified blah blah, but the point is, training in CI ops hinges on research, analysis, strategy and tactics. And therein lies the sensitive nature of this lean & mean institution.
Here is another interesting link.
abhi on September 14, 2005 08:39 PM in Military · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
Another great find Abhi!
The eating of vipers reminded of the legend of Vishkanyas (though the use of Saheli in that link made me cringe.)
This is completely OT. Abhi, did you get written permission from Bharat-Rakshak for reproducing the excerpt from their site?
No worries I am not trying to enforce their rights or anything. I am just curious. I have seen blogs (not necessarily SM) taking excerpts from news websites and others and also using images which are protected by copyrights and I am just curious as to how this works.
Incidentally Bharat-Rakshak does say the following about their article:
Copyright © BHARAT RAKSHAK. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of BHARAT RAKSHAK is prohibited.
As far as I know, an excerpt is fine under fair use.
Why are special forces always getting the "pimp" treatment? They're highly overrated, with a success rate of less than 50% especially in today's technology dependent armies.
Meh. That looks like a Dragunov SVD but I might be wrong.
Special Forces get 'Pimp' treatment because they are given missions that are extremely difficult to begin with. If you think "technology" dependent armies makes a Soldier's job easier, you are quite wrong. It may give the overall mission a higher success rate, doesn't take any stress off the Soldier though. It has only put more responsibility and added tasks to a trooper (Special Forces and conventional)thats already overloaded. By the way, where did you pull the 50% from? Successful Special Forces missions rarely get discussed and given credit, disasters always make the waves. With all due honesty, you simply don't know (none of us do) what the success rates are, unless you've got classified access to Special Forces archives of every nation. A few studies and news artiles here and there wouldn't really impress me either. This isn't somethine where significant data is available for analysis.
A lower success rate wouldnt surprise me, after all, the tasks at hand aren't the simple ones either now, are they?
That is an SVD, which means it really isn't a "sniper" weapon that most like to call, it's just a marksmen's rifle, kinda like the M-14.
India offers a fertile training area, well developed schools and military doctrine, and good cross functional abilities. I believe some US troops may have also trained in mountain assault with Indian troops too. You'll only see more of this. Airforce, Navy, and Army have plenty of cross training planned.
Incidentally, the Bharat Rakshak journos mentioned in your link are reports for rediff. Varsha Bhonsle, as you may know, is the daughter of *the* Asha.
Looks like a FAL rifle with a HUGE scope.
If want a classic example of technology + special forces = mess see Afghanistan.
Dawn is a Pakistani daily, so I wouldn't be surprised if the article's been played up, in much the same way that India media reports on Pakistani local affairs.
"US troops are being fed venomous vipers, dogs and monkeys as part of military exercises to sharpen skills in jungle combat in Indias insurgency-torn northeastern state of Mizoram"
OT - somewhat useless info: Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh are the only two northeastern states which, currently, do not have insurgency problems. Mizoram is one of the few, so called success stories, where the insurgents(MNF) have gone mainstream.
Why would you fit a FAL with a scope like that one? Standard assualt rifles don't usually get fitted with such scopes. If its a variant of the FAL like the SVD is of an AK, then I guess it'd make sense.
Ultimately, it's good to see India and US cooperating and learning from each other.
For those still reading, that is def. an SVD. Link here: http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn18-e.htm
The scope gives it away. Besides, isn' t the Indian military in love with soviet stuff? We are to the Soviets what Israel is to America. (in the military sense that is)
cheeks!
the photo does not belongs to CIJW.
It is an FN FAL. The night vision scope is an american made starlight amplicifation night vision scope..
Yudh Abhyas 2004 would have been quite an eye opener for those who cast any doubts on the caliber of the Indian SF. The CIJWS also trains officers and men from UK, Indonesia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Srilanka on a regular basis apart from the US armed forces. The Yanks also trained in our basic commando school in Belgam.
tis good
It was the Kolkata based weekly Sunday magazine that first highlighted the counter insurgency school in the mid nineties. I am horrified by the ignorance of fellow journalists.