Key decisions at Army commanders’ conference for new training and facilities

The Indian Army has made some important decisions to improve its training and infrastructure capabilities. The Ministry of Defence has announced that the Indian Army has decided to shift from the current 1+3+1 years’ technical entry scheme (TES) model to a 3+1 TES model for officer entry, starting from January 2024.

Furthermore, the Army has decided to train selected motivated soldiers for paralympic events in order to harness their spirit and never-say-die attitude. This will be done by training them in nine different sporting events at Army Sports and Mission Olympic Nodes. Additionally, the Indian Army plans to prioritise simulator training and address the shortage of officers and make more officers available in the units.

Coming to the infrastructure facilities, the construction work of Thal Sena Bhawan at Delhi Cantt is expected to be completed by 2025. The building will help to address the lack of office space and increase the efficiency of the Army HQ by bringing all the directorates together. It will have a technologically advanced architecture and will be a smart, green and future-ready project, according to the Ministry of Defence.

The officials from the Ministry of Defence stated that the changes will also help optimise the use of infrastructure, time and resources to maintain an effective fighting force. They also reviewed the need to protect modern communication systems with increased reliance on net centricity. To enable this, they will activate Command Cyber Operations and Support Wings (CCOSW) in the near future and have also appointed the lead directorates and ‘Test Bed’ formations to improve the employment philosophies and scaling of niche technologies and equipment to enhance the capabilities of the forces.