India and China in race to transform military, bolster firepower this year

While Indian armed forces look to enhance joint operational capabilities in 2024, China's military is focusing on increased discipline and its ongoing fight against corruption

India and China are both undertaking far-reaching reforms within their armed forces in 2024, ranging from changes in recruitment and training to how indigenous defence equipment is designed and developed. 

Despite similarities in the military transformations underway in both countries, there is one key difference -- while 2024 will be the "year of technology absorption" for India's army, the Chinese military's mission statement for the year is a "tough and protracted battle against corruption". 

'Parivartan Chintan'

The heads of all Indian tri-services military institutions, containing elements of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force – came together in New Delhi on Monday for the first ever tri-services planning conference, called the "Parivartan Chintan". 

 

Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, chaired the day-long discussions, which come at a time when the three defence services are coming together to set up integrated theatre commands. 

According to a Ministry of Defence (MoD) release made public after the event, the 'chintan' was a brainstorming and "idea incubation" discussion meant to generate fresh ideas, initiatives and reforms to enhance "jointness and integration in the armed forces". 

"Jointness and integration are the cornerstones of the transformation to joint structures, which the Indian armed forces are progressing towards with the intention of being 'future ready'," said the MoD. 

General Anil Chauhan initiated the conference by highlighting the need for developing a joint culture within the armed forces, which would respect the "uniqueness of each service" but also distil the best of each service "to give a de-novo approach to traditional concepts".  

General Chauhan also stressed on the need to integrate the capabilities of each service by creating structures that enhance war fighting ability and interoperability and increase efficiency. 

"The tri-service conference was attended by the heads of the Andaman and Nicobar Command and Strategic Forces Command, Commandants of National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College, College of Defence Management and Military Institute of Technology, as well as heads of the Armed Forces Special Operations Division, Defence Space Agency, Defence Cyber Agency and the Defence Communication Agency," the MoD said. 

The brainstorming was conducted by the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff.

The MoD said that officers from all the three services and the Headquarters IDS "contributed ideas towards initiating the next generation of reforms related to modernisation, procurement, training, adaptation and collaboration, while embracing emerging and innovative technologies".

In a separate release on Sunday, the MoD had said that to be ready for future wars, the armed forces have embarked on a major transformation, which centres around promoting jointness and integration. The release added that the internal structures of the forces were also being modified "to enable tri-services, multi-domain operations".  

'Bharat Shakti'

Promoting jointness between the three services appears to have been taken up on mission mode this year, with the 'Bharat Shakti' integrated tri-services firepower and manoeuvre exercise, the first-of-its-kind on such a scale, being held on March 12. 

The exercise, which lasted close to 50 minutes, was conducted at Rajasthan's Pokhran field firing range. 

The air force's indigenous LCA Tejas combat aircraft, the ALH Mk-IV helicopter, the army's Arjun main battle tank, K-9 Vajra self-propelled howitzer, Dhanush and Sharang artillery gun systems, Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher system, and a swarm of drones took part in the exercise.

 

Highlights from ‘Bharat Shakti’ in Pokhran. We will keep working towards making India self reliant in the defence sector. pic.twitter.com/Ui2SI6KhhI

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 13, 2024

The Prime Minister's Office had said that 'Bharat Shakti' was a "clear indication of India's readiness to confront and overcome contemporary and future challenges with home-grown solutions", adding that the exercise highlighted the "resilience, innovation and strength of India's domestic defence capabilities on the global stage". 

Greater emphasis on promoting indigenous defence equipment, which was a major theme of 'Bharat Shakti', is also on the cards this year. 

'Year of Technology Absorption'

The Indian Army will be observing 2024 as the "Year of Technology Absorption" as it transforms into a more modern force built on home-grown weapons. 

Last week, senior commanders of the Indian Army decided to bring in organisational and procedural transformations in the 1.2-million-strong force to ensure the absorption of niche technologies, while focusing on 'Atmanirbharta' (self-reliance). 

At the Army Commanders' conference, which concluded in Delhi on April 2, the top brass decided to revise the Indian Army's human resource management policy and set up matching training infrastructure to facilitate the absorption of niche technology. 

"The revised policy will be more innovative towards meeting the requirements of a technology-enabled, future-ready Indian Army," said an official release from the MoD on April 4.

The biannual event, which commenced on March 28, also saw a decision being taken to augment the innovation potential of the Army Design Bureau. It was also decided that test-bed brigades or formations would be nominated to ensure greater efficiency and continuity in weapons trials. 

The conference was addressed by Army Chief General Manoj Pande, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan, Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar, and Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari. 

In January, Gen Manoj Pande had said that the Army Design Bureau is involved in close to 350 design, research and development projects, which will involve a cost of about Rs 1.8 trillion. General Pande had pointed out that almost 100 per cent of the Army's procurements in the future would be through the indigenous route, adding that this was also the case last year.   

China also in mission mode in 2024

In China, too, 2024 is a year of significance for the armed forces and Beijing's drive to beef up its military might. 

A January 1 editorial in the Chinese People's Liberation Army's (PLA's) official mouthpiece provides an outlook for the PLA's goals in 2024. The editorial's message is that improved discipline and fighting corruption will be the main goals for the year.

Highlighting that 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the editorial said that the military's tasks would be "arduous and onerous". 

The editorial said that the Chinese military would "focus on selecting and employing personnel in preparation for war". 

It also said that the Chinese military would "fight a tough and protracted battle against corruption", strengthen military training and preparation for war, accelerate the supply of advanced combat capabilities, undertake actual combat training, come up with innovative training methods, and improve "actual combat capabilities".   

The goals outlined in the PLA Daily editorial also found prominent mention during the March 9 media briefing on China's national defence Budget for 2024 in Beijing. 

During the briefing, a Chinese defence spokesperson said that the increased defence expenditure in 2024 was primarily allocated to four specific areas. 

Of these, at least three explicitly dealt with strengthening military training and combat preparedness of the troops, deepening defence and military reforms, and establishing a modern military governance system. 

The other targets to be met were advancing the implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan for military development, ensuring the implementation of major military projects and programmes, and accelerating innovation and development of defence-related science and technology. 

These initiatives come at a time when Beijing considers its chief military challenge to be what it calls the "peace disease".  

Unlike the development of advanced weapons, this is a human resource challenge. 

Used internally by Chinese officials, peace disease is their term for the perceived lack of discipline and reliability among China's military personnel, caused by the ostensible lack of actual combat operations in decades.