Army Chief said that by 2027 there will be a reduction of 1 lakh soldiers in the Indian Army.

There will be a reduction of 1 lakh soldiers in the Indian Army by the year 2027. Its process was started about four years ago. At that time, the then Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) had also informed the Standing Committee on Defense Affairs of the Parliament about this. Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pandey said that the process of optimization is going on in the army and it will be completed by 2027. That means by then there will be a reduction of 1 lakh soldiers in the army.

General Pandey said that many units are being reduced as part of the optimization process. Like we have already started reducing animal transport units because now logistics drones, all terrain vehicles are being used instead of animal transport. Similarly, we have reduced most of the Food Inspection Unit which was there for many years and the Food Lab which was there for a long time and in future we will close them completely. We will use the structures available outside for food inspection. We had made a plan for optimization and started it phase wise. We will complete it by 2027. That means by then there will be a reduction of about 1 lakh soldiers.

About four years ago, the Parliament’s Standing Committee was informed about the “tooth to nail” ratio of the Army. Tooth to tail ratio is the ratio between the soldiers participating in military operations and those providing supplies etc. If the number of tail, that is, soldiers who do not participate in direct military action, increases, then the number of soldiers required for actual military actions will reduce. Therefore, if the number of soldiers required for military operations is to be kept high, the tail will have to be reduced. On the question of how the tooth to tail ratio will be reduced, the Standing Committee was told that the target is to reduce about one lakh soldiers in 3-4 years.

The Standing Committee on Defense Affairs was told that when General VP Malik was the Army Chief, he thought of reducing 50 thousand soldiers. But now the target is to reduce about one lakh soldiers. The committee was told that the money saved from this would be used to promote technology, the government also assured the army to use this amount for technology.