Shortage of Officers: Can we win a war?

Present Shortage of Officers is 15,000 which is about 30% of the authorised strength
Authority and initiative are devolved to junior level leaders who must be relied upon to problem-solve rather than react according to fixed operating procedures because a war fighting doctrine premised on creating confusion and disorder in the enemy’s organization cannot be centrally controlled. If there is shortage whom do we train? Can the red tabs take on the Junior Leaders role?

Will the shortages of Junior Officers affect Indian Armed Forces ability to evolve and also succeed in a Military Strategy to defeat our adversaries?

The past five years have seen all three services articulate doctrines for their vision of the future of war. On the whole, this is a positive development in that a promulgated doctrine can provide a guide to help ensure that the services’ training, procurement and personnel policies are in line with their concept of future military operations. The problem is that military doctrines cannot be developed in a vacuum. In the absence of strong political guidance as to the nation’s strategic goals and the conditions under which the armed forces would be employed, the armed services are being forced to improvise – which can strip doctrine of many of its useful functions if they lack inter-service coordination and develop ways of fighting that are incompatible with the political objectives of the country’s leadership.

Bollywood Style Planning: Indian planners believe that they can use the incidents like Mumbai attacks as an excuse for the limited war backed by extensive “knock out” diplomacy to give in by Pakistani political leadership against world pressure. In the state of confusion of political leadership they can go for limited war and can achieve their military objectives. Ignoring the basic difference between a commando action and this kind of limited war. Very few politicians are well-versed in military affairs, and the actual expertise in defence matters of the Ministry of Defence’s IAS Bureaucrats are patchy at best. The Armed Forces have to do better to train Politicians as well if we wish to evolve a Military Doctrine to blunt our adversaries!
Armed Forces short of nearly 15,000 Officers: RM