• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Armour Corps Armoured Regiments

At the time of independence of the country in August 1947, Pakistan Army inherited six armoured regiments from the British Indian Army. For training of officers and men of Pakistan Armoured Corps, the Armoured Corps Centre and School was established at Nowshera in 1947 which also had a School Wing under it. With the passage of time, more armoured regiments were raised. A total of nine Armoured Regiments saw significant combat experience in the 1965 War with India, while at least thirteen Armoured Regiments saw action in the 1971 War with India. These combat records identify a total 15 Armoured Regiments.

A number of armoured regiments in the British Army retain the historic cavalry designations of Hussars, Dragoons, Dragoon Guards or Lancers. Both the Indian and Pakistan Armies maintain armoured regiments with the titles of Lancers or Horse dating back to the nineteenth century. The term 'Cavalry' and 'Lancer' are retained by Pakistan, even though all raisings are Armoured Regiments (AR).

As of 2008 the Pakistan Army had about 2,200 tanks. If each Armoured Regiment typically had 55 tanks, this would imply the existence of 40 Armoured Regiments, which is in fact the reported number of Regiments. Some of the Pakistani Armour Regiments are rumored to be understrength, as a result of milking them to raise additional regiments along with bleeding the attrition reserve tanks. The Pakistani Army has taken some Armoured Regiments and grouped them into independent Armoured Brigades. Some of these are placed near the Indian Border to enhance readiness if the Corps had the heavy equipment already in place. Seven Corps each have one attached Armoured Brigade, except for V Corps at Karachi which may have two Armoured Brigades, and XII Corps at Quetta which has one independent Brigade of unknown type. A total of about eight Armoured Brigades would amount to 7-8 armoured regiments and might explan why Pakistan has so many independent armoured brigades.

This could be in:

• 2 X Armoured Divisions = 2 X (2 X 3) = 12 Armoured Regiments
• 8 X Independent Armoured Brigdes = 8 X 3 = 24 Armoured Regiments
• 4 X Infantry Divisions = 4 X 1 = 4 Armoured Regiments.

The distribution of tanks in an Indian Army Armoured Regiment is: 30 Tanks; 15 Training tanks (which are fully operational during combat; and 10 tanks as reserves (mechanical and attrition). The Pakistani Army Armoured Regiments have 41 tanks, with another 10-15 tanks was mechanical and attrition reserve. These tanks are not directly with the regiments, but are are held at various ordinance depots. But in general each Pakistani Armoured Regiment has between 50-56 tanks.

As of 2008 the Indian Army had 61-63 armoured regiments, each typically with 45 tanks. The total of about 3,700 tanks [sufficient for over 80 Armoured Regiments] would be divided between about 2,800 assigned to Regiments, and about 900 assigned to other formations. If the same 3-to-1 ratio between Regimental and non-Regimenal tank assignments were found in Pakistan, this would imply the existence of about 30 Armoured Regiments.

Another calculation assumes an upper figure of 2,350 tanks to be correct, which along with a lower figure of 50 tanks per Regiment would constitute 47 regiments. This could be in:

• 3 X Armoured Divisions = 3 X (2 X 3) = 18 Armoured Regiments
• 7 X Independent Armoured Brigdes = 7 X 3 = 21 Armoured Regiments
• 8 X Infantry Divisions = 8 X 1 = 8 Armoured Regiments.

By this calculation, nine of the infantry divisions would not have armoured regiments. These would probably be the Peshawar, Quetta and Skardu based divisions. Their armoured egiments would have been consolidated into 3 independent Armoured Brigades