Towards the future: A look at the modernization of the sentinels

Rahul Kamble

(rahulkamble01433@gmail.com)

India Celebrated its 75th Army Day on January 15 to commemorate Gen Cariappa taking over as the First Army Chief on 15th January 1947. Over the timeline, the legacy of the Indian Army has come a long way ahead and at present, stands studded on the brink of changing warfare dynamics. As the cloud of fighting a two-front war is hanging over New Delhi, the diplomats are having a tough time as they are busy buying time, even though, in the era of Nuclear weapons, it seems far from the reality that either of our adversaries will get involved in a full-blown conventional war. However, in view of the legacy which China owns of being a non-reliable and expansionist country, nothing can be neglected. On the other hand, an ever-hostile Islamabad exists, which continuously lurks to find an opportunity to reinforce itself behind Chinese aggression. Thus, it becomes very crucial to understand the preparedness of the Indian armed forces. Although India has the fourth most powerful military power in the world, still the armed forces are facing a huge challenge of modernization. Looking at the threat perceptions of India, it is important to overcome those challenges. In recent times the dimensions of warfare have changed considerably and therefore Defence policy perspectives have to take into account our responses to short war situations as well as proxy wars. It, therefore, becomes imperative that the arming and modernization of forces with the right capability and technology cannot be delayed any longer. With this in view, Atma Nirbharta or self-reliance in Defence will have to address two important areas, i.e., maintenance of existing assets and acquisition of next-generation weapon systems and platforms.

The country cannot have too many dependencies and indigenous production has to be the vision. We need to, therefore, establish a 'Production Eco System', which will meet our requirements. The key areas which would need our emphasis would relate to the design and development of technology and utilization of all our national resources and capability in terms of the public sector, private sector, academia, industry and startups. A lot of programmes are on the roll to acquire modern rifles, machine guns and protective gear. The Army has already begun the process to acquire the same. The long-standing made-in-India 'INSAS' rifle is being replaced by the American SIG Sauer rifle as the standard rifle for the Infantry. Apart from this, 2023 is going to be a milestone year, as the long-awaited AK 203 Kalashnikov Rifles will start to arrive, as a result of a joint collaboration between the Ordnance Factory Board and Russia. Apart from this, India is reorganizing its mechanized force to achieve strategic mobility for a quick thrust into enemy territory. Further, to add teeth to its firepower India has successfully ordered and inducted M777 howitzers from the USA and inducted a new variant of DRDO-developed Pinaka multiple rocket launcher, which can fire a salvo of 12 HE rockets in just 44 seconds and has a range up to 90 km. The system mounted on the TATA truck adds a feather to its mobility. Also, the DRDO-developed Automated Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), also known as 'Indian Bofors', is what many believe is a game changer and is looked upon with expectant eyes. All other indigenous developments which the Army is keenly desperate to have its hands on include a wide array of missiles, small arms ranging from pistols and submachine guns to sniper rifles, attachments of the same, armoured vehicles to main battle tanks, high altitude clothing and bulletproof jackets, melee weapons and so on. However, with all these inductions and many others in the pipeline, the major issue that the Indian Army still faces is the availability of funds for future procurement. Since modernization is a continuous process, it cannot be halted once new procurement is made.

Apart from the arsenal, Army is also on the verge of a major restructuring after necessary approval.

The concept of IBG or Integrated Battle Groups

Once introduced in the structured strata, these light brigade-level all-weather formations, which are capable of taking swift action, will be the need of the hour in the coming decades. The aim of this reform is to cut the overall strength to about 1,50,000 personnel in a 5-7-year span. This ultimate goal is to make the Army leaner and finer as well as stout. Cutting the personnel size will save adequate funds for equipping existing soldiers. In addition, a lot of other transformational changes are being implemented organizationally, which is a positive sign. The creation of the Theatre Commands is a work in progress and may take a few years. In addition, the aspects discussed above, need to be deliberated and implemented with meticulous forethought to make the Army leaner but with more agility. The creation of more counter-offensive formations, which can be deployed at short notice, would become the key issue to raising India's strategic deterrence against China and thus prevent a war.

It is an undisputed fact that countries which upgrade their military ahead of time deter the adversary from waging war. Today's soldier needs to be technically savvy, physically and mentally robust. Indian armed forces also need a long-term strategy which includes improving the teeth-to-tail ratio, improving command, control, communication, and Intelligence and developing a large indigenous arsenal. However, over a period of time, the Indian armed forces decided to carry out extensive and far-reaching reforms with the aim to enhance its fighting capabilities. A lot is required to achieve the strategic objectives and the military has a key role to play in attaining those objectives. Thus, it becomes crucial for the Indian armed forces to look into the loopholes in the limited time frame and work to overcome those loopholes in a time-bound manner. The process of modernizing the largest standing army in the world is, without a doubt, an arduous task. The whole transition remains in the public domain because of the continuous tussle of the Army with hostile neighbours.

Unfortunately, what many ignore or do not grasp is the fact that modernization of the armed forces is a time-consuming, tedious process and requires a clear vision, strategy and a shared common national goal. It cannot be something that changes with the change in the government. It is like adding a block to an existing one. National security is not the scenario where one runs for water after seeing the house on fire. It is the timely analysis of threats and building strategies to avert them. Both China and Pakistan continued to orchestrate its destabilizing design against India. While Indian Army has to defend multiple fronts, either of our adversaries remains far from the threat perception levels. History has it that it is not the machine but the man behind the machine that shifts the outcome of the war. However, undermining the adversary's capability itself is one of the basic principles of war.