The Special Frontier Force (SFF) unit, referred to as Vikas Battalion had been said to be instrumental in preventing Chinese occupation on the line of actual control (LAC) in Ladakh.
History- SSF was established on 14th November 1962 in the immediate aftermath of the 1962 Sino-India War.
It was of convert outfit which recruited Tibetans (now it has a mixture of the Tibetans and Gorkhaa) and initially went by the name of ‘Establishment 22’.
SFF falls under the purview of the Cabinet Secretariat where it is headed by an Inspector General who is an army officer of the rank of Major General. The units that comprise the SFF are known as Vikas battalion.
Strictly speaking the SFF are not part of the army but they function under operational control of the Army. The units have their own rank structure which have equivalent status with Army Ranks
Major Operations include Operations Eagle (1971 with Pakistan), Operation Bluestar (clearing Amritsar’s Golden Temple in 1984), Operation Meghdoot (securing the Siachen Glacier in 1984) and Operation Vijay (war with Pakistan Kargil 1999) and many counter-insurgency operations in the country.
