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Army aiming to be a versatile unit: Padmanabhan

"I am looking at the 21st century army of India as a well trained, highly motivated, appropriately trained force, capable of undertaking low-intensity warfare as well as nuclear warfare," said General S Padmanabhan on Friday.

He was speaking on the future of the Indian Army at a press conference in the run up to Army Day on January 15.

The General said that he is looking at a 'versatile army' capable of operating in all stages of war. "I expect the army to be capable of doing it with very minimum casualty," he said.

The army chief said post-Kargil the army is slowing procuring the weapons and equipment on its wish list, a task that has been pending for long. "We are fortunate that there is a situation when most of the items on our wish list have ceased to be dreams," he said.

The army needs to have weapons and equipment that are suited for modern warfare, where the threat could range form low-intensity warfare to an all out nuclear war, he said.

However, he pointed that apart from low-intensity warfare, like that in Jammu and Kashmir, to nuclear warfare, there is the most important possibility of 'normal kind of fighting'. He stressed that one of the army's major aims is to sharpen its conventional warfare capabilities.

On nuclearisation, he said India's draft nuclear doctrine advocates no first use, but stresses on self-preservation. "What we are working at is a credible nuclear deterrent," he said.

On delivery systems for nuclear weapons, he said, "In a few days' time, you might hear of some of our missiles flying."

He said the triad of nuclear weapons that India is developing would be for second strike capability. "Second strike is predicted on the survivability of the arsenals," he said.

When asked if Pakistan was the prime enemy in mind while developing nuclear weapons, General Padmanabhan said, "It is not Pakistan alone."

In the build up to his future army, the General said the shortage of officers, accumulated over a few decades, is being slowly eliminated. He said there continued to be a heavy rush for recruitment as jawans.

At the officer's level, the Union Public Service Commission receives over 100,000 applications for the National Defence Academy entrance and over 60,000 applications for the Combined Defence Services exams. "There is no dearth of talent and volunteers," he said.

A few years back, the shortage of officers stood at over 30 per cent, but has now been brought down to 26.5 per cent, which he said would be wiped out in course of time.

The General also said the army is proposing to raise more Territorial Army units to meet some of its demand. According to available information, trained porters etc could be raised as Territorial Army units in the future.

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