New Delhi: Army has embarked upon a Rs 700 crore plan for expansion and modernisation of the country's special forces with the strength of these elite forces expected to be doubled from the present five battalions to ten.

With the view to give these Special Forces enhanced mobility, Army proposes to induct light combat vehicles and fast speed all terrain multi-utility vehicles for these forces on the pattern of US Ranger, official sources said.

They said the major thrust would be on acquiring weaponry including under water rifles, special sniper rifles, GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation system, modular acquisition devices, digital cameras and remote detonating devices from the United States through Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route.

"A comprehensive list of over two dozen weapon systems and other equipment has been given to the US Defence Department last month to be delivered on an urgent basis," Defence Ministry officials said.

A high level three-member Indian Defence delegation comprising Additional Secretary Ranjit Issar, Joint Secretary (Acquisitions) Thoman Mathew and Joint Secretary Gautam Mukhopadhyaya is currently in Washington meeting Pentagon officials to expedite the armament exports.

Officials said that currently Indian Special Forces also had certain limitations in navigation system and anti-armour capabilities, which were now being rectified.

Army, senior officials said that they rectified its earlier tactics of using special forces only in cross-border hit and run raids and top commanders were of the view that Special Forces could be more effectively used in massed formations for rapid strikes.

For the first time since their inception, all the special forces battalions had been concentrated in the Titwal area in Northern Kashmir during Operation Parakaram for bold strikes into Pakistan occupied Kashmir in case of conflict.

Indian Special Forces recently held wide ranging exercises with the US Forces in Agra and in Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, where some deficiencies in communication, GPS had come to the fore, sources said.

Officials said that these exercises, which involved special missions, were conducted as a learning package to avoid "detection and possible mission failures". Besides, the GPS navigation system and under water rifles, Army is inducting from the US under FMS light weapon carbines equipped with day and night sights, Laser dot sights, silencers and radio transponder beacon for helicopter and aircraft position guidance, extensively used by US troops in Afghanistan.

Other weaponry on the shopping list includes modular acquisition to be mounted on laser range finder for accurate location of target and portable decompression system for training for accidents and diver propulsion vehicles for divers to reach deep under water.