Pakistan Army Armoured Corps

Pakistan Armoured Corps
Badge of the Armored Corps
Active1947 (1947)
Country Pakistan
Branch Pakistan Army
RoleCombat and combined arms administrative and staffing oversight.
Size52 regiments[1]
HQ/GarrisonNowshera Cantonment, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan.[2][3]
Nickname(s)AC
Men of Steel[4]
Color identificationRed and Yellow
  
Anniversaries1947
EngagementsMilitary history of Pakistan
Commanders
Director-GeneralMaj-Gen. Zafar Iqbal Marwat
Notable
commanders		Lt. Gen. Shah Rafi Alam General Jehangir Karamat
General Shamim Alam Khan
Lt-Gen Nadeem Zaki Manj
Lt-Gen Hameed Gul
Lt-Gen Gul Hassan Khan
Maj-Gen. Bilal Omer Khan
Insignia
War flag
Administrative Corps of the Pakistan Army
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Air Defense Artillery

The Pakistan Army Armoured Corps is a military administrative and combined arms service branch of the Pakistan Army.[3]

Headquartered in Nowshera, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan, the corps is commanded by its director-general, Major-General Zafar Marwat as of 2023.[2]

Overview

The Pakistan Army's armored corps was commissioned as an administrative corps from one-third of the personnel and assets of the British Indian Army's Indian Armoured Corps– there were six regiments that formed the basis of the Armoured Corps.: 156 [5][6]

During the early years, the British Army officers played a crucial role in running the military operations from the Nowshera Cantonment which remains till this day Armoured Corps' headquarter.: 83 [7] Until 1956, the training and field manuals were based on British Army but later adopted U.S. Army's field manual and training, which is continue to be practiced by armoured corps' training school.[8] The School of Armor and Mechanized Warfare trains cadets and officers to be a part of the Armored Corps at the Nowshera Cantonment.[9] The Armored Corps is commanded by the director-general who is usually at two-star active duty rank, Major-General, working directly under the Chief of the General Staff at the Army GHQ in Rawalpindi.[8]

The Armoured Corps only has an administrative control over its combat strike brigades and such brigade teams are employed in numbers of strike maneuver corps to defend the national borders of Pakistan from the foreign threats.[10][11][12][13]

Until 2001, the armoured corps was focused towards opposing Indian advances in the east but later stationed its interests in western border to prevent foreign threats coming from Afghanistan.[14]

In 2012, the CIA used satellite imagery to estimate that there were 32 armoured regiments in Pakistan Army, including two armoured reconnaissance regiments.[15] Most of these units were operating near the border with India.

Regiments in the Corps

At the time of independence of the country in August 1947, Pakistan Army inherited six armoured regiments from the British Indian Army, as follows:

Regiment Nickname Raised
President's Bodyguard (Pakistan)[16][17] PBG 1773
13th Lancers[17][18] The Spearhead Regiment 1817
Guides Cavalry[17][19] The Guides 1846
11th Cavalry (Frontier Force)[17][20] PAVO Cavalry 1849
5th Horse[17][21] Probyn's Horse 1857
6th Lancers[22][23] Watson's Horse 1857
19th Lancers[17][24] Tiwana Lancers 1858
15th Lancers[17][25] Baluch Horse 1955
12th Cavalry (Frontier Force)[17][26] Sam Browne's Cavalry 1955
4th Cavalry (Pakistan) The Valiants 1956
20th Lancers[17][27] Haideri 1956
22rd Cavalry[17] Death or Glory 1962
23rd Cavalry 1962
24th Cavalry (Frontier Force) The Chargers 1962
25th Cavalry Men of Steel 1962
32nd Cavalry Conquerers 1964
27th Cavalry Steeds of War 1965
30th Cavalry[28] Bold Till Death 1966
31st Cavalry[17] Sprocketeers 1966
34th Lancers Dragoons 1999
26th Cavalry[29]: 601  The Mustangs 1968
28th Cavalry[30] Chamb Hunters 1969
29th Cavalry[17] Bengal Tigers 1969
33rd Cavalry[17][31] Fortunes with the Bold 1971
38th Cavalry[32] Desert Hawk 1971
39th Cavalry[33] The Vanguards 1971
51st Lancers[22] Silver Eagles 1971
52nd Cavalry[34] Howal Mastan 1972
53rd Cavalry[17] Golden Eagle 1972
54th Cavalry Hizbullah 1974
21 Independent Armoured Squadron 1985
55th Cavalry Adham 1985
56th Cavalry Raad ul Harb 1985
57th Cavalry Allāhu ʾakbar 1985
58th Cavalry Lionhearts 1985
40th Horse[35][36] Scinde Horse 1987
41st Horse[17] Karakash 1987
42nd Lancers[17][27] Punjab Lancers 1988
21st Horse[35] Murtajiz 1990
7th Lancers Zarrar 1991
8th Cavalry[37]: 130  Izz-Ul-Khail 1991
9th Horse The Arabian Horse 1991
14th Lancers Zarb-e-Ghazi 1993
16th Horse[38] Al-Mugheerat 1993
18th Horse[38][36] 1994
17th Lancers 1998
37th Cavalry Ribat-us-Sehra
35th Cavalry AL-MUBARIZUN 2014
43rd Cavalry Al-Zarib 2015
44th Cavalry Hell on Wheels 2016
45th Horse Alambardar
47th Cavalry
36th Cavalry
Al-Zarrar Main Battle Tank of the Pakistan Army
A column of Pakistani Type 59 tanks during the 1965 War.
2nd Bombay Lancers (now 13th Lancers). Coloured lithograph by Richard Simkin, 1885.

Equipment

Early days

During World War II, the British Indian Army received low priority for equipment, and the surplus American tanks and vehicles obtained afterward were mostly outdated. The Indian Armoured Corps operated a mix of obsolete Churchills, Shermans, Stuarts, and armoured cars. This same mix was inherited by the Pakistan Armoured Corps (excluding the Churchill tank), which struggled to keep them operational in the difficult years after independence.[39] After the independence, Pakistan got 135 light armoured vehicles consisting of M3 Stuarts, Humber armoured cars and Daimler armoured cars along with some Universal Carriers, 2 AEC armoured command vehicles and 162 Sherman medium tanks from the division of assets.[40]

Current inventory

Armoured Corps regiments are equipped with the following:

  • The VT4 is a Chinese third-generation MBT specifically made for export.
  • The Al-Khalid main battle tank is a joint Sino-Pakistani production with a 125 mm smoothbore gun.
  • The T-80UD is of Ukrainian origin with a 125 mm smoothbore gun.
  • The Al-Zarrar is a heavily upgraded version of the Chinese Type 59 tank equipped with a 125mm smoothbore cannon, ERA, and many more modern equipment.
  • The T-85III is an upgraded version of the Chinese T-85AP with a 125 mm smoothbore gun.
  • The Type 69 tank is a Chinese MBT with a 105 mm gun.
  • The Haider main battle tank has been designed by using the design of the Chinese VT4.

See also

References

  1. ^ The armoured regiments are composed of one battalion each.
  2. ^ a b "Commanders must focus on training of all ranks, says COAS". The News. 12 November 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  3. ^ a b "COAS General Bajwa Visited Armored Corps Regimental Centre Nowshera And Installs New Colonel Commandant of Armoured Corps". pakdefense.com. 14 November 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  4. ^ "The Men of Steel". The News. 6 September 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  5. ^ Roy, Kaushik (17 January 2013). The Army in British India: From Colonial Warfare to Total War 1857 - 1947. A&C Black. ISBN 978-1-4411-7730-8. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  6. ^ Riza, Maj Gen Shaukat. (1989). The Pakistan Army 1947-49. Rawalpindi: Services Book Club
  7. ^ Cheema, Pervaiz I.; Riemer, Manuel (22 August 1990). Pakistan's Defence Policy 1947-58. Springer. ISBN 978-1-349-20942-2. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  8. ^ a b Alam, Shah (2012). Pakistan Army: Modernisation, Arms Procurement and Capacity Building. New Delhi, India: Vij Books India Pvt Ltd. p. 116. ISBN 9789381411797. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  9. ^ "PAKISTAN ARMY". PAKISTAN ARMY. 2022-04-25. Archived from the original on 2022-04-25. Retrieved 2022-05-04.
  10. ^ "Armoured Corps". Pakistanarmy.gov.pk. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  11. ^ "India escalations". Pakistanarmy.gov.pk. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  12. ^ "Pakistan army launches 'major offensive' in North Waziristan". BBC News. 15 June 2014. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  13. ^ "Pak's all-out offensive against Taliban kills 177 militants". Deccan Herald. 16 June 2014. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  14. ^ "Pakistan Army Armoured Corps makes Military history, unprecedented World Record". Times of Islamabad. 7 January 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  15. ^ "Pakistani Armored Regiments (S)" (PDF). CIA.gov. CIA. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
  16. ^ The President's Body Guard was formed at independence from the Governor General's Bodyguard, which was raised in 1773 under the name of Governor's Troop of Mughals at that time. In 1956 its name was changed to President's Bodyguard from when Pakistan became a republic. It is the senior-most armoured regiment of Pakistan Army.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "BADGES – ARMOURED CORPS". pakarmymuseum.com. Archived from the original on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  18. ^ 13th Lancers is successor to the 1st and 2nd Native Troops of Bombay Cavalry, raised in 1804 and 1816 respectively.
  19. ^ The Guides Cavalry (Frontier Force) is the successor to the Corps of Guides raised in 1846.
  20. ^ 11th Cavalry (Frontier Force) is the successor to 1st and 3rd Regiments of Punjab Cavalry, both raised in 1849.
  21. ^ 5th Horse is the successor to the 1st Sikh Irregular Cavalry (Wales's Horse), and the 2nd Sikh Irregular Cavalry, both raised in 1857.
  22. ^ a b Tariq, Sardar Muhammad; Raja, Asif Jehangir. "Spirits Rekindled – Joint Staff Pakistan Day Parade - 2015". Hilal: The Pakistan Armed Forces Magazine. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
  23. ^ 6th Lancers is the successor to The Rohilkhand Horse raised in 1857, and the 4th Sikh Irregular Cavalry raised in 1858.
  24. ^ 19th Lancers is successor to the 2nd Mahratta Horse (Tiwana Horse) raised in 1858, and Fane's Horse raised in 1860.
  25. ^ 15th Lancers is successor to the Muttra Horse and 7th Bombay Cavalry, raised in 1857 and 1885 respectively.
  26. ^ 12th Cavalry (Frontier Force) is the successor to 2nd and 5th Regiments of Punjab Cavalry, both raised in 1849.
  27. ^ a b 20th Lancers is associated with the Punjab Regiment.
  28. ^ "The Gazette of Pakistan. Part II. Notifications issued by the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Defence Production" (PDF). Government of Pakistan. 9 September 2020. p. 492. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  29. ^ "The Gazette of Pakistan. Part II" (PDF). Government of Pakistan. 16 December 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  30. ^ "The Gazette of Pakistan. Part II" (PDF). Government of Pakistan. 21 April 2021. p. 108. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  31. ^ 33rd Cavalry is the only Pakistani armoured regiment which has five battle honours to its credit post-independence.
  32. ^ "The Gazette of Pakistan. Part II" (PDF). Government of Pakistan. 1 January 2020. p. 1. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  33. ^ "The Gazette of Pakistan. Part II" (PDF). Government of Pakistan. 16 June 2021. p. 243. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  34. ^ "The Gazette of Pakistan. Part II" (PDF). Government of Pakistan. 27 January 2021. p. 21. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  35. ^ a b "Public Tenders page 2". Public Procurement Regulatory Authority. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  36. ^ a b "The Gazette of Pakistan. Part II" (PDF). Government of Pakistan. 3 June 2020. p. 201. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  37. ^ "The Gazette of Pakistan. Part II" (PDF). Government of Pakistan. 26 February 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  38. ^ a b "Public Tenders page 1". Public Procurement Regulatory Authority. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  39. ^ Major-General Syed Ali Hamid (2021). At the Forward Edge of Battle: A History of the Pakistan Armoured Corps 1938-2016. Warwick, England: Helion & Company Limited. p. 58. ISBN 9781914377471.
  40. ^ Major-General Syed Ali Hamid (2021). At the Forward Edge of Battle: A History of the Pakistan Armoured Corps 1938-2016. Warwick, England: Helion & Company Limited. pp. i–viii, 59. ISBN 9781914377471.
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