Army in the midst of major organisational, procedural transformation
Scaling up innovation potential and decentralising the Army Design Bureau to Command Headquarters level, exploring separate funding head, updating contract procedure, better synergy with other union ministries, revising human resource policy for infusion of techfriendly resources and creating ‘adversarial force’ for realistic wargame and training, are some of the key decisions the Indian Army has taken for its organisational and procedural transformation.
These slew of initiatives were discussed and accepted during the brainstorming of top leaders at the biennial Army Commanders’ conference, that concluded on April 2. The Ministry of Defence stated that to ensure induction of indigenous niche technology for futuristic capability development, it was agreed that the innovation potential of the Army Design Bureau (ADB) will be upscaled in addition to the setting up separate ADB Cells at the Command Headquarters.
MOD STATEMENT
“This is aimed at empowering the Command Headquarters, formations and unit commanders in facilitating greater
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressing the Army Commanders’ conference, as Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pande and Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane looks on, in New Delhi on Tuesday
outreach to the industry and identification/ trials of niche technology,” the MoD announced in a statement released on Thursday.
To ensure lifetime support, future procurements will in
corporate aspects for holistic sustenance requirements during contract finalisation stage. In addition to that, test bed brigades and formations will be nominated to ensure greater efficiency and continuity in trials and finalisation of trial reports, the Ministry informed. “More opportunities to collaborate with other ministries will be explored, to optimally utilise resources and synergise efforts for enhanced capability building and infrastructure development in border areas,” the MoD stated.
‘THIRD REVOLUTION’
The revised policy will be more innovative towards meeting the requirements of a techenabled futureready Indian Army, it stated. Finally, the armed force will look into the feasibility of creating a tailormade organisation to function as an adversarial force for the execution of realistic wargame and training, as per the Defence Ministry. At the conference, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan advised the top Army commanders to follow the ‘Third revolution in military affairs’, a doctrine conceptualised for future ‘hyperwar’ expected to be fought at the speed of light in cyber space, in its attempt to embrace the aspects of jointness, integration and technological absorption.
Addressing the Army Commanders’ conference, General Anil Chauhan complimented the security forces for absorbing “transformational changes enthusiastically” in the midst of professional commitments at borders and exhorted the senior leadership to “embrace jointness and technological absorption in sync with the call of the ‘Third Revolution in Military Affairs’,’’ the Ministry said.
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Manoj Pande emphasised the need to ensure seamless situational awareness between commanders at all levels and troops on the ground.
“The COAS also highlighted that there is a constant need to undertake doctrinal and structural reforms by embracing change and being open to new ideas to meet future operational challenges,” he told his commanders and other senior officials.