Grit and experience affect the growth of an institution. Fighting four major wars, insurgency and other low intensity wars has indeed made the Indian Army an eminently and efficient battle trained, war machine.
Changing times bring changing needs. Battle training must tell also on the structuring of the army, for it is this function that extracts the most from the assets available, both men and material. A look at the command and structuring of the Indian Army shows how finely these have been tuned to meet India's threat perceptions, based on the experience of the major wars that it has fought and the present-day context.
The largest standing volunteer Army in the world has never had to scour the populace for draft or conscription. There are always more men eager to don olive green than the demand at any one time. But this does not reflect a situation where a large unemployed workforce would get into uniform to keep body and soul together. More to the point is the basic attitude of our people to the call of arms, discovered also by the British, some three centuries before. There are very many who join up for long service tenures under the colors, by inclination and choice - also familial habit. If a young man or woman, sound of body and mind, and of Indian origin, is inclined to spend most of his useful working years in the kind of desolation that the country's Field areas' adjoining the borders provide, can he or she cannot be refused. The country is divided into recruiting zones. Every zone is allotted a quota for recruitment based on a percentage of its population and ethnic grouping. A legacy, slowly being diluted, is that of combat arm units or regiments recruiting from a particular zone or mixture of ethnic groups.
A man has joined up, it is for keeps. Many fall out at the basic training stage when they find that there is much more to it than getting into a smart uniform. The one who hear the sound of the trumpet clearly without missing a note, take their oath and for the greatness of the nation go into service - not servitude.
Army Headquarters reserves could be mammoth-size or small, but powerful in either case. Heavy-tracked-Corps are an instance of the former, and the three parachute commandos (battalion-size units), which perform special-forces duties, of the latter. Airborne, Air Assault or Parachute troops are usually held centralized. The mounts', in all cases, are provided by the Indian Air Force.
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The Army has in its Order of Battle, mountain divisions, infantry divisions, (in which tank units predominate) and mechanized divisions (in which mechanized infantry units predominate). Independent brigade groups may be mechanized, (missile or gun), parachute, engineer, field artillery, electronic warfare or even standard infantry and mountain. These form 'Corps/Army troops', that is, they are held at Corps and Army levels for balancing out missions and task forces. At these levels, one would find heavy logistic support units in terms of supply, transport, field ordnance depots, and medical facilities.
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Organizationally, the field forces have never been static. Reorganization and creation of new field forces is the norm, prompted by constant rethinking and the emergence of new technology. To put it simply, if our organizations are basically triangular, there is no bar on making them square or pentagonal for a given mission.
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