New Delhi:Despite the premium placed on the Indian Army’s ongoing modernization effort and the related training of its personnel, the premier institute that churns out officers—the Indian Military Academy (IMA) at Dehradun—suffers from the non-availability of a range of weapons and equipment to train the Gentlemen Cadets (GC).
A performance audit report on the process of selection and training of officers in the Indian Army by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that was tabled in Parliament just last week, says: “New generation weapons/equipment like multi-shot grenade launchers (MGLs), Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGLs), flame throwers, laser range finder (LRF) Spotter Scope, Thermal Imaging Devices, Image Intensifiers, Hand Held Thermal Imager (HHTIs), Firing Range Automatic Scoring System (FRASS), etc... were not available in IMA Dehradun, the premier training academy of the country.”
These are vital equipment for the Indian Army’s tactical operations at the western and northern borders as well as in conducting counter-insurgency operations in the Kashmir Valley and in India’s Northeast. Without the modern weapons and systems, the GCs were forced to train with and use “older versions of weapons/equipment which did not match the latest technological developments and changing warfare scenarios and thereby deprived the cadets of better exposure.”
Although the issue had been pointed out several times in the past including in the report of the Army Training Command (ARTRAC), one of the Indian Army’s seven commands, the issue still remains unaddressed although IMA tries to make do with weapons brought in from local units and formations on specific days.