Inside Indian Army's decision to create new cyber operations wing

With an objective to augment operational capabilities and strengthen the cyber security posture in the force, the Indian Army has decided to establish a new wing that will look after the cyber operations.

The decision was taken at the Army Commanders’ Conference meeting held from April 17-21 in a hybrid format.

The Indian Army’s top brass also decided to create structures to 'test bed' the large number and variety of niche tech-enabled equipment being inducted into the force.

Sources in the Indian Army reasoned that adversaries like China had expanded their cyber warfare capabilities manifold. "The cyber domain has become more competitive and contested than before."

New Command Cyber Operations and Support Wings (CCOSW)

The source said: "With rapid migration towards net centricity, which entails an increased reliance on modern communication systems, the forum reviewed the requirement to safeguard the networks and decided to operationalise Command Cyber Operations and Support Wings (CCOSW) in the immediate future."

To begin with, the new wing will have officers earmarked and will spend tenure, to begin with at the Command level, sources said. "Cyberspace has emerged as an important military domain both in grey zone warfare as well as conventional operations," they said.

Niche technologies and equipment

In another significant decision, the top echelons in the Indian Army decided to nominate Lead Directorates and 'Test Bed' Formations to evolve optimal employment philosophies and scaling to facilitate better absorption of niche technologies and equipment across the force.

Highlighting the niche tech-enabled equipment being inducted into the force, the Indian Army felt that the structures are required to exploit them optimally.

"Seamless exploitation of niche equipment also has an impact on the refinement of the existing TTPs and maintenance/sustenance philosophy that would have a direct bearing on the training and maintenance of the equipment.” Sources said.

The equipment includes a variety of Tactical/Mini/ Micro/Logistics Drones/ UAVs, Drone Swarms, Loiter Weapon Systems, Electronic Warfare, and anti-Drone equipment among others.

The equipment being procured is intended to enhance the fighting potential of the field formations by infusion of niche capabilities in our force structures. 

The Army has announced the year 2023 as the "Year of Transformation".

It must be noted that the Army Commanders’ Conference (ACC) is an apex-level biannual event which is an institutional platform for conceptual level deliberations, culminating in making important policy decisions for the force.

During their 4-day brainstorming sessions, the force has taken several important decisions regarding the process of induction of the Officers and the welfare of specially-abled children of those soldiers who die in harnesses.

It was decided to double the sustenance allowance to such children through the Army Group Insurance Fund (AGIF).

In the Technical Entry Scheme (TES), the duration of training has been brought down to four years instead of five years for the entry of officers into the force.

It has been done under deliberations on training initiatives to optimise infrastructure, time and resources to maintain an effective and lethal fighting force.

The sources added that it was decided to transition from the existing 1+3+1 years Technical Entry Scheme (TES) model to 3 + 1 TES model from January 2024 onwards.

“This change will also accrue benefits of the availability of more officers in the units and address officers' shortages.”, they said.

Simulator training is also planned to be given a significant push through the procurement of 435 simulators at an estimated cost of Rs 791 crore this year.

With an aim to harness the soldiers’ indomitable spirit and never say die attitude, the Army Commanders decided 'to identify and train selected motivated soldiers for Paralympic Events by training them at Army Sports and Mission Olympic Nodes in nine sporting events.'