The Indian Army’s plans for modernization are based on a fifteen-year perspective plan. The need to maintain a balance between development and defence expenditure constrains us to have a proportionate mix of equipment: the state-of-the-art as well as the nearly obsolete. As far as the mechanized forces are concerned, we are focusing on night-fighting capability of the vintage equipment as well as inducting T90 and Arjun tanks.
As I visualize it, the T90 shall be our main battle tank for the next few decades. The T72 tanks are being refurbished with improved fire control, night vision and communication systems. For the artillery, we could not induct new towed 155 mm guns because the systems under trials did not meet the desired parameters. The whole exercise is being repeated on priority as the artillery badly requires new equipment. Besides that, I was convinced that we needed to acquire a capability of 155-mm light howitzers with a longer reach, which could be underslung and lifted by helicopters, specially for the mountains, and out-of-area and amphibious operations. There were some amongst us who were content with the towed guns under trial, but had no answer for areas in the mountains where there were no roads or even if there were, the guns would not have been able to reach the desired areas easily. I believe such light howitzers are now being evaluated and tried out. To meet this operational requirement, the air force is also in the process of procuring heavy lift helicopters to carry these guns and undertake other missions as well. This capability will definitely take us into the big league.
The same applies to the air defence artillery, where the equipment is almost obsolete and the shortages need to be made up. In the domain of missiles we have had an impressive indigenous research and development (R&D) record. Whereas we had started the process of induction of the Prithvi and Agni missile systems in the last few years, it was my privilege as the chief to symbolically receive two mobile ‘autonomous launchers’ and a mobile command post of the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile system for the army from none other than President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on the 21 June 2007. This missile project is a fine example of joint R&D by India and Russia, and was led by Dr Shivathanu Pillai, a dynamic scientist. For me personally, it has been a feeling of deep satisfaction to see this system developed. I had witnessed the launch of this missile on two occasions in the Pokharan ranges and observed at first-hand its devastating effect. As stated by Dr Pillai, the naval version of the Brahmos missile is also being inducted in Indian warships and the development of air-launched Brahmos is in progress.
Modernization of the infantry was one of my foremost KRAs. In the type of challenges that we are presently confronted with and are most likely to face in the future, the infantry will continue to be the battle-winning factor. The infantry soldier is thus being progressively transformed by the F-INSAS (Futuristic Infantry Soldier as a System) programme.
‘The future infantry soldier must be equipped with tools for better situational awareness, light all-purpose weapons, day-night vision capability, single piece uniform containing climate control and monitoring system … Today’s infantry soldier is certainly more operationally capable than his predecessor was a few years ago. He is equipped with a lighter weapon, i.e. INSAS 5.56 … night vision devices and night sights on his weapon system … lighter infantry combat kit than he was carrying earlier … better surveillance and communications system. In a few years from now, we are going to actually see the infantryman holding a hand-held device on which he can at all times know his own position and that of his colleagues and also transmit a message by SMS or by data to his company commander and from there on to his battalion commander. So, we are going to see an army of the future, where a satellite image is received by frontline soldiers and they transmit messages and data through this system upwards to the headquarters. RMA is going to be manifest in a very effective manner at the cutting edge, that is, the infantryman.’1
The infantry urgently requires a state-of-the-art close-quarter-battle (CQB) carbine to replace the existing obsolete weapon. As the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) made a bid to make an indigenous carbine, we had to give them a chance. Finally, their product failed to meet our requirements and we had to carry out trials of imported models. To keep the costs low and to give our ordnance factory an opportunity, I proposed that we should have two types of carbines in our army, one for the infantry for a specialized CQB role, which must match the best in the world, and the second for the rest of the army, which should be the best indigenous product. I am happy this proposal stands accepted by the government and the acquisition process is on. When I visited Oman as the chief in 2005, they scheduled a visit to the army’s museum. I was shocked to see a 9-mm carbine of the type we are currently using, and which we had also supplied to the Omanese army in the 1960s, displayed as a museum piece!
The ageing fleet of army aviation helicopters is being upgraded. Since 2004, modern helicopters are being tried out so that we could replace the Cheetahs and Chetaks of 1960s vintage. In addition, our indigenous ‘Dhruv’ advanced light helicopters (ALH) are also being inducted. I distinctly remember that during the ALH desert trials, the prototype came to Rajasthan during Operation Parakaram (2002) and we had flown in it. I found it to be a very powerful and robust machine, though at that time there were some glitches noticed too. The biggest advantage that accrues with this aircraft is the carrying capacity. The entire ‘R’ (recce) group of the Corps HQ could move in one helicopter. As far as the engineers are concerned, modern equipment for mine laying and breaching is in the pipeline, as are bridges.
We are now ushering in the era of the digitized battle field. Commanders, their staff, the fighting units, weapon systems, battlefield sensors and other entities will be interconnected by robust and fully secure digital information and communication technology infrastructure. The applications running on it will help us achieve information superiority. These will also provide us capabilities such as situational awareness, collaborative planning and sensor-to-shooter linkages as envisaged in our doctrine. Thus these network-centric systems and information warfare capabilities would act as war-winning force multipliers and give us the desired edge over the adversary.
India is renowned for its prowess in the information technology (IT) field but it was realized that we had not been able to exploit this IT dominance in the military domain. Therefore, I took the initiative to set up the Army Information and Technology Advisory Council. This council comprised prominent IT industry leaders, management experts, academicians and senior army officers. I was very happy to see the response of major IT companies like Microsoft, Wipro, NIIT, Hewlett Packard and Rolta, who nominated senior executives to be part of this council. This group was mandated to render advice in the formulation of an IT perspective plan for the Indian Army. The council holds a meeting twice a year to monitor the progress of various projects to make us into a network-enabled army. The first meeting of this council was held in April 2006 and was presided over by me.
To achieve the objective of network-centricity and IT dominance, projects like the battlefield surveillance system, the command information decision support system, and the artillery command and control and communications system received renewed focus. I am more than satisfied to see these projects being gradually deployed on ground. The information and communication technology projects that saw the light of day during my tenure are listed in Appendix 6.
As far as the logistics are concerned, two of my KRAs as the chief were modernization as well as improvement of the teeth-to-tail ratio. Therefore, my focus was on upgradation of the existing logistics infrastructure, pruning the strength of logistic units and offloading as many areas of administrative support of the army as possible to the public sector undertakings and trade. Holding of reserves of fuel, oils and lubricants, maintenance and repair of vehicles, and stocking of reserves of rations by the Food Corporation of India are some of the areas where the civilian sector has stepped in. Besides this, my thrust was on automation and computerized inventory control. As a first step, we were able to implement a pilot project of automation in the ordnance depot at Delhi. This is being followed up in other logistics installations in a phased manner. I firmly believe in the concept of ‘just enough and just in time’ in the domain of logistics. We have to grow out of the habit of overinsurance and overstocking by maintenance of reserves at all levels as if we are operating in an overseas theatre. As our indigenous production capability is going up, it must result in reduced holdings except items being imported, and thereby bring in savings.
The EME was given greater capability to carry out repairs in field conditions, and as far forward as conditions permitted. Major restructuring and modernization of the base workshops was commenced in a phased manner. This was to facilitate overhauls and base repairs of the tanks, guns and other equipment. Repairs of vehicles and other equipment was offloaded to the original equipment manufacturers and trade to the extent possible, so that EME manpower and facilities could concentrate on imported and sensitive equipment. Having grown up in a technical environment, it was but natural for me to have an attraction for mechanical things. My focus as far as repair and recovery was concerned was to have better capabilities to keep weapon systems and equipment in good working order. Because we had to keep a fairly large inventory of older equipment going, we had to fabricate spares and make innovations. I awarded the maximum possible chief’s commendations ‘on the spot’ for good work done and for the most innovative ideas to encourage out-of-the-box thinking and creativity. The screening of the deserving individuals was done by their superior officers in advance.
As far as the medical infrastructure is concerned, my focus was on upgradation and creation of facilities to make the command hospitals and military hospitals, such as the one in Guwahati, on par with the Research and Referral Hospital at Delhi. The cases were taken up with the ministry of defence and hopefully, we shall see them materialize in due course. At the field level, the endeavour was to induct the latest life-saving equipment so that the ‘golden hour’ principle could be meaningfully implemented. As a result, the fatalities during evacuation have been brought down considerably.
Overall, we were able to carry out a fair amount of modernization and enhancement of our capability in terms of night-fighting equipment, sensors, battlefield surveillance radars and equipment for net-centric and information warfare as also in the domain of logistics. If some more of our proposals had fructified in a shorter time frame, I would have been even more satisfied. It was sad to see some of our major acquisition projects running into heavy weather in the last stages, for reasons which are best known to the government.
1 Gurmeet Kanwal, Army Vision 2020, p. 200. Excerpts of an interview given by me to SP’s Guide Publications, The Chiefs Spoke, SP’s ShowNews (Defence Expo daily), 31 January 2006.