COVID — 19 and Military Restructuring: A Blessing in the Disguise
Did you ever imagine this situation? The pandemic of Wuhan Coronavirus — what challenging times we are living in! Civilians and military personnel have been impacted squarely — the pandemic has spared none. Military is always at the forefront in every calamity, working nonstop to aid the civilian administration. The military can troubleshoot any challenge thrown at them. However the severity of COVID-19 has forced them to evaluate alternative ways to run their operations.
Having army headquarters issue a work from home order to certain groups is a huge disruption to their operations. Social distancing guidelines by the civilian administration have left them with no other option. As one can easily imagine, the modus operandi of the armed forces renders social distancing impractical in certain scenarios.
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One of the simple ways to measure the army’s efficiency is their tooth to tail ratio(T3R) and this directly proportional to Army’s efficiency. Indian Army‘s ratio is considerably low, compared to other armies like Korea, Japan, Taiwan, South Africa, etc. In 2016, the Ministry of Defense, constituted a committee of experts(CoE) under Lt. Gen. D. B. Shekatkar to recommend structural reforms. The Shekatkar committee has provided around 200 recommendations to the Ministry. The recommendations include reducing the manpower, merging different units, and getting rid of outdated services. This committee has recommended merging units performing similar functions like signal units, vehicle workshops, streamlining the inventory control mechanism, and recruitment changes in the clerical staff. The government recently implemented one recommendation of constituting the post of Chief of Defense Staff.
A futuristic, corporate approach can help to re-organize forces and the primary task is to classify units as combat and non-combat. The combat units are fighting forces and non-combat units are auxiliary services supporting the fighting units. The ratio between these two is the tooth to tail ratio(T3R). The mathematical way to increase this ratio, is by lowering the denominator i. e. headcount of non-combat personnel.
The most agile organizational approach is to increase the ratio in peacetime, decrease in wartime, and then average out to a higher ratio than that of the current one. The forces have to focus on their core strength, which are combat units, and reduce or outsource non-combat units. This can be even achieved by increasing the reserves and developing a capability to convert the reserves into wartime auxiliary services in a very little amount of time and minimal refresher training. Much of the non-combat and non-service specific staff can be used on an inter-operability principle and shared across civilian and military departments. This can be an effective way to share the workload, reduce the headcount, and re-deploy the pre-existing trained personnel.
This idea of shared resources can be further extended to inter-services staff, which is not exclusive to a particular service. The classic example is Cavalry workshop can’t be shared across service lines or the Warship repair crew can’t work with the other two services. The Chief of Defense Staff is developing an idea of war theaters. In these war theaters, units from multiple services will be combined to operate in a synergy and will be reporting to one commander. The commander might or might not be from the same service as troop. It is easier to seek help from other services when multiple services are working together. It will be also efficient for one commander to manage/share resources effectively. Once this model is established, then additional non-combat staff, which is highly trained, can be further released to other units in all three services or even transferred to non-military departments. This changed headcount and updated recruiting requirements can be later considered during the recruitment phase gradually.
British have left a century-old military structure and culture for independent India. Though, it is working effectively, it requires an overhaul to keep pace with the changing global order. The only way to modernize is by following the modern corporate style restructuring, adapting the agile operations, and cross-train the non-combat personnel that can be easily and quickly reassigned with minimal training. The futuristic-looking armed forces will be key to transform today’s army into tomorrow’s smart fighting machine.
References:
- 57,000 army personnel to be redeployed to increase ‘tooth to tail’ ratio — https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/57-000-army-personnel-to-be-redeployed-to-increase-tooth-to-tail-ratio-117083001383_1.html
- Ministry of Defense paper from Aug 2017: https://mod.gov.in/dod/sites/default/files/Majoraugust.pdf
- Shekatkar Committee Report: Genuine ‘Reforms’ or Cosmetic ‘Re-grouping’?
http://www.indiandefencereview.com/news/shekatkar-committee-report-genuine-reforms-or-cosmetic-re-grouping/ - Defense Reforms — A National Imperative (IDSA) https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/book-defence-reform-3.pdf
- Cover Image: https://www.dnaindia.com/india/photo-gallery-beating-retreat-patriotic-end-to-republic-day-celebrations-2299419/heads-of-three-defence-force-salute-the-tri-colour-2299431
