Indian Army To Speed Up Inductions; Focus On Joint Operations Between Three Forces
Dated 27/10/2007
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Indian Army plans to speed up the pace of new inductions, the army chief said adding his major priority would be on increasing the forces' night fighting capability and in promoting jointmanship among the three services, said Indian Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor.
General Kapoor also rubbished reports of army having differences with IAF over its efforts to expand its own air arm, the Army Aviation Corp. On its plans to acquire 197 light helicopters to replace its aging fleet of Cheetahs and Chetak choppers, he said nothing had been finalized as yet.
"The plan is with the government," he said.
Army has given its preference for inducting Eurocopter, but it's competitor American company Textron has raised some objections on the deal. Asked about the army's new Space Vision plans, Kapoor said the country's land forces as largest user of space technology like communications and global positioning systems had to keep pace with countries like China which were near developing network centric warfare operations.
"Under the new Space Vision, we plan to have systems in place to make soldiers and officers aware of advanced technologies involved," he said. While admitting that army's induction plans had the tendency to bunch up towards the end of the financial year, Kapoor said he would strive to change these and push for speeding up armament acquisition projects. He said the government had recently increased the financial powers of Vice Chief of all services from Rs 10 to Rs 30 crore.
