Army Chief General Manoj Pande said on Sunday that the army has made a good start on its transformation roadmap and that it needs to keep focusing on and energizing all of its pillars.
At the 104th convocation ceremony at the Military College of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering (MCEME) here, he said these things.
He said that the army has started to change over the last year or so.
The four main reasons for change are the geo-strategic landscape “that you see around us” changing in ways that have never been seen before, the limitless potential of disruptive and niche technologies, the changing nature of modern warfare, and the deep changes in the country’s social and economic environment, he said.
He said that a transformation roadmap was put in place almost a year ago to deal with these needs and make the changes that were wanted.
“I must say we have made good beginnings and progress and need to ensure continued focus and impetus across all five pillars of the transformation roadmap,” he stated.
The five pillars are optimizing and reorganizing the work force, bringing the systems, processes, and functions up to date and incorporating new technology, managing human resources better, and making the organization more joint and integrated.
“As part of force restructuring, reorganisation and optimization, we are reviewing our organisational structures, to the right size, rationalise and reorganise the required units to achieve improved combat efficiency,” he stated.
Another thing he said was that new technologies and systems like the RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System), drones, precision-guided weapons, autonomous systems, robotics, AI, and quantum communication will be very important in future battles.
The army already has a lot of new equipment, but it also keeps a lot of old and legacy equipment, he said.
He said that the fifth pillar of jointness and integration includes plans and actions to bring together the skills and abilities of different services in order to get better results.
He said that the young officers will be in charge of keeping these important warfighting systems running smoothly and making sure they are always ready to go. He said that many aircraft are currently stationed at high elevations in eastern Ladakh and north Sikkim, and that different types of weapons are stationed in areas with very difficult weather and terrain.
“It can always put you to the test to keep equipment working in such tough conditions. “Remember that combat operations cannot be held up because of any of the equipment I talked about not working,” he said.
He also told the young officers that they have a lot of responsibilities and a lot of opportunities ahead of them.
He urged them to live a life of constant learning and to keep their bodies and minds strong. General Pande told them to set a good example for others to follow and be people that men and the country could look up to.
A defense release said that the Army Chief gave BTech degrees to 33 officers of the Degree Engineering (DE) and Technical Entry Scheme (TES) course. The foreign officers included officers from the Royal Bhutan Army and the Sri Lankan Army.
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