Indian Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers patrol near the fenced border with Pakistan in Suchetgarh, southwest of Jammu January 14, 2013. India’s army chief General Bikram Singh held out the threat of retaliating against Pakistan for the killing of two soldiers at the de facto border in Kashmir, saying he had asked his ground commanders to be aggressive in the face of provocation. REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta (INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR – Tags: MILITARY CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) – RTR3CG20
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar wants to “rightsize” the Indian Armed Forces as recommended by a high-powered committee in a report submitted to him on December 21.
He is understood to have sought a formal comment of the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force to “rightsize” the total manpower of the three forces. He has also asked them to toss idea for cutting costs from within.
Sources in the Defence Ministry said Parrikar has not yet accepted the report of the committee headed by Lt. Gen. D B Shekatkar as he is still studying it, but he wants to ascertain views of those who run the show on the field as some of the recommendations are quite radical.
The measures suggested by the committee are to trim, redeploy and integrate the manpower under the Defence Ministry to have an “effective military.” Parrikar had set up the committee to enhance the combat potential of the Armed Forces and re-balance the defence expenditure.
He is already on a drive to cut corners. Only on December 30, he signed a new policy to scale down India’s war readiness from 40 to 10 days of an “intense conflict” (war), requiring the three Armed Forces to stock up weapons, ammunition, missiles, etc. lasting only that many days in what is called “Minimum Accepted Risk Level (MARL) in the military parlance.
The Shekatkar committee is believed to have drawn up a roadmap for reducing the expenses by Rs 25,000 crore over the next five years. It has suggested redeployment of manpower from the organisations under the Defence Ministry, stressing that it should be across the board.
source:- Free Press Journal
The post Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar bid to trim the Indian Military appeared first on Indian Defence Update.
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