Indian Army organisations are mostly of World War 2 vintage.

The Indian Army made a late start in 2018 by conceptualising its new combined arms formation known as the IBGs.Īlso read: India-China talks on Ladakh face-off have hit a wall.

Modern technology, communications and networking overcame the need for a large division. Over the last two decades, most armies have done away with divisions and restructured them into two to three tailor – made combined arms brigades, keeping in view the mission, threat and terrain, and operating directly under the Corps. Divisions were considered to be too unwieldy and slow to respond. In such wars, the requirement was for more agile formations to gain the first – mover advantage. Future conflicts/wars were likely to be limited in time and space and dominated by high-end precision and lethal military technology. These formations were suited for set – piece battles in prolonged wars.īut i n the 21st century, most nations assessed that the probability of full-scale wars to achieve decisive victories, particularly between nations armed with nuclear weapons, was very low. Three to four divisions are grouped under a Corps to conduct large scale operations. It is capable of creating three combined arms manoeuvre brigades with varying groupings. It constitutes, under one Commander, a force of three armoured/infantry/mountain brigades backed by inherent centrally controlled combat/logistics support units. The ‘ division ’ has been the default combined arms fighting formation for nearly two centuries. To that extent we have identified a holding formation on the Western front and a Strike formation on the Northern borders for the IBGisation to commence.” On, while speaking to a group of journalists, he gave details on the progress of raising of the Integrated Battle Groups, or the IBGs : “ The purpose of restructuring our existing formations into integrated battle groups was to have forces which are lean, agile and tailor-made which would afford the commanders the flexibility and more options for their employment in the respective theaters to achieve the desired outcomes. The Chief of Army Staff, General Manoj Pande, has hit the ground running with respect to restructuring and reorganising the Indian Army.

Battle group