Need to outline Infantry's modernisation: Lt-Gen Singh

Indian Army's Director-General (Infantry) Lieutenant-General Jasbir Singh has stressed on outlining the future modernisation of that Fighting Arm, the other Arm being the Artillery.

While addressing a three-day Infantry Commanders' Conference -- which began yesterday at the Infantry School in the nearby Military Headquarters Of War (MHOW) -- the officer said, ''I am confident that the Conference will address lacunae besides honing the Infantry's mobility and striking power.'' An exhibition of weapons and defence equipment is also part of the Conference.

The Infantry School is the Army's largest and oldest training establishment. It has trained not only infantrymen but also officers and senior commanders of Indian and many foreign armies. Its alumni have risen to the highest military ranks and scripted military history in India and abroad.

The total number of army, paramilitary, police and foreign students trained annually at the School, averages approximately 7,500. The School conducts training packages and programmes for commissioned officers, junior commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers.

The Army Marksmanship Unit at the School has provided outstanding shooters of national and international calibre. The School's origins can be traced to the establishment of the School of Musketry in 1888 at Changla Gali in present-day Pakistan. Between 1888 and 1949, the School's name and location changed many times.

The School remained the principal combined arms training establishment until 1964. It conducted the Junior and Senior Commanders' courses attended by officers of all arms and services.

In 1964, the School provided the nucleus and its long experience to start the College of Combat, an institution designed to build the combined arms combat tradition in the Army.

Every Indian infantry officer starts his career at the School. It makes the most long-lasting impact on the infantryman's outlook, about the essential need and role of the infantry in war. The tactical successes of Indian infantry in battles can rightly be said to have emerged from this School.

Posted in: India