Indian Military vehicles follow different set of rules & regulations & have a different number plate

Indian Military vehicles follow different set of rules & regulations & have a different number plate.

Why? This is why:

• Primarily this is done because military vehicles can have different specifications than those allowed or defined by the RTO.
• A different number plate marks that the equipment is a government property & is not owned by any individual.
• When the vehicle registered in one state is to be used in other state, transfer formalities need to be done . For organisations like the armed forces whose area of responsibility is the entire country & there is no differentiation between the states, this practice of “transfer formalities & paperwork” can seriously cripple the operational agility of the forces.

Unlike civilian vehicles which are registered under Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Armed forces vehicles are registered under Ministry of Defence & the number plate looks something like this:

See the number plate of this military operated Maruti Gypsy. The numbers mean the following:

• “⬆” upward pointing arrow which is also called Broad Arrow in the starting was primarily used by the British Government & is adopted by the Indian government post freedom. The main function of the arrow is to prevent the number from being read wrongly in case the number plate turns upside down.
• “08” refers to the year of purchase of the vehicle. This gypsy was purchased in 2008.
• “B” refers to Base code which tells the type of vehicle. A stands for Armored vehicles, B stands transport vehicles and C stand for two wheelers.
• “101161” is the actual serial number of the vehicle.
• “W” refers to the check code.

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The vehicles operated by the military officers also have stars in them & different number of stars reflect a different rank of the officer who is allotted the car.

• Field marshal or Marshal of the Indian air force have 5 stars on their vehicle.

Pic: Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw on his 5 star marked Gypsy.

• The Chief of staff (General, Admiral or Air Chief Marshal) have 4 stars on their vehicle.

Pic: Chief of Naval staff Admiral Robin Dhowan (now retd.) inspecting a guard of honor in a 4 star marked Gypsy.

Pic: Air chief marshal in his 4 star gypsy.

• Lieutenant General, Vice admiral or Air Marshal ranking officers have 3 stars on their vehicles.

• Major General, Rear Admiral or Air Vice Marshal have 2 stars on their vehicles.

• Brigadier, Commodore or Air commodore have 1 star on their vehicle.

• As you must have noticed by now, Army vehicles carrying higher ranking officers have stars on red background. Air Force has sky blue & Navy has stars on navy blue background as shown in the pic below:

Pic: Vehicles of Chief of staff together.

Hope it helped.

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