Armed forces told to take optimisation measures amid Covid-19 crisis

Underlining the severe financial constraints imposed on the army, navy and air force as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), headed by Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, has sent out a letter ordering “optimisation measures”. Officers, however, fear this will sharply impair the military’s equipment and functioning.

In the letter, which Business Standard has reviewed, Rawat, in his capacity as DMA Secretary and CDS, has slashed expenditure on the building of unit medical facilities, training simulators, soldiers’ cookhouses, and officers’ messes. 

The letter orders that no concrete garages are to be built hereafter for armoured vehicles like the T-90 tank, even though they are damaged by excessive heat. Instead, these crucial combat platforms, costing Rs 25-27 crore each, are to be housed in “tin sheds and not concrete (garages)”.

Army trucks and jeeps, similarly, will be housed in “temporary sheds — hard standing with tin sheds”. Vehicles that bring personnel to office will stand all day in the open, since these are “parked for limited durations”.

In the memo, Rawat “has desired that more such optimisation is to be identified and an advisory issued” after his approval. The army, navy and air force headquarters have been asked to suggest additional cost cutting measures.

Military sources also say that Rawat has ordered the army, navy and air force to place a hold on the purchase of new equipment from the capital budget during the first quarter of this financial year.

On Friday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told a video conference of top commanders, including Rawat and the three service chiefs, “to initiate measures to spend the financial resources, avoiding wastage in view of the economic burden imposed by Covid-19”, according to the defence ministry.

And on Thursday, the government announced a freeze on additional increments of dearness allowance and dearness relief for 18 months for all central government employees, including serving military personnel and veterans.

Officers from combat units say these measures would undermine their capability in combat. The army’s fighting units have always been structurally self-contained, incorporating all the administrative elements needed to operate independently in wartime. Each company, squadron or battery — subunits comprising about 100 soldiers — has its own cookhouse and administrative components, enabling it to fight and move independently. 

Long experience has shown that a single-field cookhouse cannot feed more than 125 soldiers. Now, with the number of cookhouses halved to two per battalion, they will struggle to feed many more soldiers, affecting both quality and efficiency.

Similarly, a battalion or regiment, — the basic combat unit, consisting of three-to-four companies, squadrons or batteries — has always had its own officers’ mess and junior commissioned officers’ (JCO’s) club. Besides housing and feeding the battalion/regiment’s officers, including during wartime, the mess is usually a repository of unit history, often displaying memorabilia and souvenirs captured from the enemy in war.

Now, Rawat has ordered officers’ messes to be constructed for military stations, not for units. “Instead of cutting flab, the government is cutting close to the bone. The Covid-19 crisis is real, but we cannot afford a return to the 1990s, when funding cuts severely damaged the military’s capability,” a combat unit commander said on condition of anonymity.