Defence ministry trims Army flab; 57,000 soldiers to shift to combat roles

Shekatkar Committee reforms to shave Rs 25,000 cr off defence budget

The lead photograph in this article has been changed to make it more relevant to the story.

---

The Army currently deploys more soldiers on non-combat administrative and supply chain duties than in the trenches in wartime.

On Wednesday, to increase what the defence ministry terms the Army’s teeth-to-tail ratio by putting a larger percentage of soldiers on the frontline, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley ordered 65 reforms to the structure of the military.

Improving the teeth-to-tail ratio involves whittling down administrative and logistic units that support combat operations, and redeploying the manpower thus saved into combat units. The defence