Friday, January 17, 2014

indian army parachute regiment

The Parachute Regiment is the elite main Special Forces/airborne regiment of the Indian Army.The Parachute 

 The first Indian airborne formation was the 50 Independent Parachute Brigade raised on 29 October 1941 with 151 British, 152 Indian, and 153 Gurkha Parachute Battalions and other support units.The regimental badge for the Parachute Regiment is an open parachute, partially behind a circle with the word “Parachute” at the top and a scroll at the bottom with the word “Regiment”; wings are spread out from the circle, and a dagger is superimposed on the parachute and upper portion of the circle; the whole in silver metal. As with much of the world’s parachute forces, the normal headgear is a maroon beret, although there is a maroon turban for Sikh personnel.
The special forces, which form part of the Parachute Regiment, have a distinct insignia called Balidaan, which has a commando dagger point downwards, with upward-extending wings extending from the blade and a scroll superimposed on the blade with “Balidaan” inscribed in Devanagiri; the whole in silver metal on an upright red plastic rectangle. The special forces personnel also wear a maroon curved shoulder title with SPECIAL FORCES embroidered in light blue, succeeding the COMMANDO tab in 2006 with was in use since inception.

There remains a single airborne brevet: an open parachute in white, with light blue wings extended from it, the whole on a grey-green drab background. (Some other variants have existed for ceremonial/mess uniforms, e.g., with gold wired wings on a maroon flanel, the same on a scarlet background for the PBG on their ceremonial tunics. This was formerly worn on the upper right sleeve but since, 1975 appears above the right chest pocket and name tab. There is also a small enameled version (white parachute with blue, yellow, or red wings) worn on the left pocket as Jump Indicator Wings (for 25, 50 or 100 descents, respectively). The small enameled badge has now been replaced by a brass badge with stars at the bottom of the parachute, with one star denoting 25 jumps, two stars 50 and three stars 100.

The regiment has a total of 11 regular, one Rashtriya Rifles and two territorial army battalions; of the regular bns, four are Special Forces (Airborne) battalions, while eight are special forces battalions. Formerly designated "commando" units, they are now designated special forces:
  • 4th Battalion (Special Forces) raised 1961, conversion to Special Forces 2003.
  • 5th Battalion (Special Forces Airborne) raised 1963
  • 6th Battalion (Special Forces Airborne) raised 1963
  • 7th Battalion (Special Forces Airborne) raised 1963
  • 9th Battalion (Special Forces) raised 1966 as 9th Parachute Commando Battalion.
  • 10th Battalion (Special Forces) raised in 1967 as 10th Parachute Commando battalion from 9 Para Cdo.
  • 12th Battalion (Special Forces Airborne) under raising, as in 2011
  • 106th Infantry Battalion (Para) Territorial Army
  • 116th Infantry Battalion (Para) Territorial Army
  • 31st Battalion (Commando) - Rashtriya Rifle

Honorary Officers
  • Mahendra Singh Dhoni was commissioned into the 106 Para TA Bn with the Hon. Rank of Major by the President of India on 1 Nov 2011
  • Deepak Rao was commissioned into the 116 Para TA Bn with the Hon. Rank of Major by the President of India on 1 Nov 2011. He is cited to be Indias foremost pioneer and specialist in Close Quarter Warfare by the Indian Ministry of Defence. His method of Reflex shooting has been used to modernize close quarter combat shooting in Northern Command and Eastern Command under directive of Army commanders.

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