Lessons from a load carrier

With the Indian Army placing orders for a fresh batch of Stallion trucks, there is an urgent need to simplify military logistics to reduce cost

All those who were in the army at the time of the Kargil conflict in 1999, or who lived or worked in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) during that year, could hardly have missed the long army convoys that carried army divisions into Kargil, wending their way up to Drass through the Zojila pass, or through the Rohtang Pass to Leh. For the first time since independence, the army’s convoys looked menacing, the legacy Shaktiman and Tata lorries replaced by Ashok Leyland’s new Stallion 7.5-tonne, four-wheel-drive load carriers. Since that dramatic introduction, the Stallion has become the Indian Army’s staple load