NEW DELHI: The Indian Army is working on a major restructuring of its mechanised warfare apparatus, with plans to bring the Armoured Corps and Mechanised Infantry under a revamped Directorate General of Mechanised Forces (DGMF), it is learnt.
Sources said the Armoured Corps Directorate and Mechanised Infantry Directorate are proposed to be brought under a unified Mechanised Forces Directorate headed by a Lieutenant General. Two Major General-rank Additional Directors General, responsible for the Armoured Corps and Mechanised Infantry respectively, will function under the DGMF.
“The Armoured Corps and Mechanised Infantry will continue to retain their separate identities. What is being looked at is a more integrated structure at the Army Headquarters level,” a source said.
“The idea is to bring greater synergy in planning, doctrine, force development and modernisation under a common mechanised forces framework,” the source added.
At present, the Armoured Corps and Mechanised Infantry are managed through separate structures at Army Headquarters.
While the Armoured Corps is overseen by the DG Armoured Corps, Mechanised Infantry functions through the ADG Mechanised Infantry. Both fall under the Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Capability Development and Systems).
The proposed restructuring comes as the Army increasingly seeks greater integration across its mechanised combat arms, with battlefield operations expected to hinge on the coordinated employment of tanks, infantry combat vehicles (ICVs), drones, attack helicopters, electronic warfare systems and networked battlefield sensors.
The Armoured Corps currently fields more than 60 regiments equipped with T-90 Bhishma, T-72 Ajeya and Arjun main battle tanks, while the mechanised infantry component, comprising the Mechanised Infantry Regiment and mechanised battalions of the Brigade of the Guards, fields over 50 battalions equipped with BMP-2 Sarath infantry combat vehicles.
Together, they form the backbone of the Army’s mechanised strike capability.
Moreover, while the tanks provide breakthrough capability, shock action and heavy firepower, mechanised infantry units provide the protected infantry element required to operate alongside them to secure objectives, neutralise anti-tank threats, exploit battlefield gains and hold captured territory.
The concept of mechanised forces, however, is not new to the Army. Its origins lie in post-1965 war reforms that sought to provide infantry with the mobility and protection required to operate alongside tank formations.
The process gathered momentum with the induction of BMP-series ICVs and the raising of the Mechanised Infantry Regiment in 1979 under Gen K. Sundarji. A further step followed in 1986 when the Mechanised Infantry Regiment was brought under the Armoured Corps establishment and the Directorate General of Mechanised Forces (DGMF) was created, formally linking the Army’s armour and mechanised infantry components under a common institutional framework.