Following the nod by the Government to the Army last month to raise a mountain strike corps to counter China, the Infantry top brass has got into a huddle to chart out the process to recruit 30,000 personnel for the corps besides identifying and procuring weapons and infrastructure needed to fight a war in the mountains.
The corps to be raised in seven to eight years to meet any threat from China in the eastern sector, including Arunachal Pradesh, will cost more than Rs 80,000 crore, including cost of procuring howitzers, artillery guns, helicopters and mountain specific equipment.
Since the major component of the corps will comprise infantry, the commanders are now engaged in a brainstorming session in Mhow to chalk out a plan to raise the corps without any delays, officials said here on Thursday.
Army Chief General Bikram Singh headed the session and all the formation commanders and commanding officers took part in the Infantry Commanders’ conclave which will end on Saturday, they said.
Since the Army is raising a new corps of more than 30,000 personnel after nearly two decades, the top brass is keen to lay down fool-proof procedures for acquiring funds from the Government, they said. Moreover, the leadership will also review the process of acquiring land for the corps as most of the bases will be located in West Bengal, Assam and Bihar, they said.
Besides this issue, the commanders will also take stock of modernisation and procedures adopted to train jawans to operate and fight in network-centric battlefield.
Given the fast changing war fighting techniques all over the world, the Army wants to upgrade the skills of its nearly five lakh infantry jawans and officers to fully exploit the potential of computers, satellites and fast changing technology, officials said.