Doctrinal changes: Over the past few years, the army has been evolving and validating new concepts to cater to the changing geo-strategic scenario and keep pace with emerging battlefield technologies. New doctrines are aimed at cutting down mobilisation and response times while increasing the effectiveness of surgical strikes, besides fighting limited wars, waging sub-convectional warfare as well as fighting high intensity battles in the backdrop of a nuclear threat. A key emerging feature is joint operations with sister services.
n Manpower: There is a deficiency to the tune of 24 per cent in the officer cadre. There is serious shortage at the junior and middle level that forms the force's cutting edge. Policies for personnel below officer rank also need a serious re-look.
n Erosion of values: A number of senior officers have, in recent years, been embroiled in cases pertaining to corruption as well as professional and moral impropriety, denting the army’s image.
n Internal Security: Frequent and prolonged deployment on internal security and counter-terrorist operations has affected operational preparedness, training cycles, troop morale and ethos of the army.
n Network Centric Warfare: The army is developing a "network of networks" that would integrate echelons and formations vertically and horizontally for exploiting the information spectrum to enable real-time flow of data and intelligence, facilitating battlefield assessment and decision making. Many interlinking systems and protocols are in the development phase, but the biggest drawback is that the military does not have a dedicated satellite to bank upon.
n Armour: A large chunk of the army's tank fleet is not equipped for night fighting. Older T-72s require upgradation while the indigenous Arjun does not fully comply with operational requirements.
n Artillery: Upgradation of the artillery has been hanging fire for decades, with no new gun being inducted in 25 years. The army lacks medium and heavy caliber self-propelled artillery. Tendering process to procure new systems has been cancelled thrice. Only a limited number of artillery fire-finder radars are available. Army yet to get cruise and long-range ballistic missiles.
n Infantry: The army has conceived Future Infantry Soldier as a System (F-INSAS), aiming to significantly improve the capability of the foot-soldier by equipping him with state-of-the-art light-weight weapons, sensors and protective measures. The present day personal equipment of the soldier continues to be rudimentary vis-à-vis modern armies. The infantry also requires more battlefield surveillance radars, detection systems, thermal imagers and night vision equipment. Two new infantry divisions are being raised.
n Air Defence: This is an arena that requires urgent attention. Existing systems like ZSU 23-4, SA-6 and SA-8 are vintage. Indigenous systems such as Akash and Trishul are nowhere in sight.
n Airborne component: The Army Aviation Corps has drawn up plans to expand and induct light as well as medium-lift utility and battlefield support helicopters. Its present fleet of largely Cheetahs and Chetaks is old and insufficient. More unmanned aerial vehicles needed for tactical recce.
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