The Indian Army has handed over 10 military-spec Tata Safari Storme SUVs to the Myanmar Army. The said vehicles were handed over by the Indian Ambassador to Myanmar. According to a recent tweet by ANI, the delivery of the vehicles to was promised to the Myanmar Commander-in-Chief by the Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat in his recent visit to India. The Tata Safari Storme is the new chariot of the Indian Army. It is set to replace the ageing Maruti Suzuki Gypsy which will be removed from the Amry’s fleet in a phased manner. The reason for the replacement comes in the wake of the upcoming safety and emission regulations which the Gypsy is not going to meet.
The Tata Safari Storme and the Mahindra Scorpio were in contention to be the replacement vehicle for the Indian Army and were undergoing trials for the last five years. Ultimately, it was the former that was chosen as Tata Motors made the lowest bid. The Army had placed an order to 3,192 units of the Safari Strome to Tata Motors of which more than 90 per cent has already been delivered. That said, the Indian Army recently approached the Ministry of Defence in order to allow them with a waiver over the new emission and safety regulations, which it recieved and hence placed an order to 3,051 units of the Gypsy to Maruti Suzuki.
The reason cited by the Indian Amry for the continued use of the Maruti Suzuki Gypsy is the smaller dimensions of the vehicle, in comparison to that of the Tata Safari Storme, allows them to easily tread the narrow paths that the Army has to encounter while patrolling in Kashmir as well as the northeastern states. In addition to this, the military-spec Tata Safari Storme is only available with a hard-top configuration while the Maruti Suzuki Gypsy comes with hard as well as soft-top models allowing the Amry with greater flexibility.
