Page 3 - ch 13

Indian Army Module - IV

Armed Forces Today
(a) The government gave sanction for increasing the number of soldiers from 5,50,000
to 8,25,000.
(b) Increase the size of the Airforce and the Navy to have 69 ships.

(c) Create army Divisions capable of fighting in the mountains and also defend our
borders in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Uttarakhand.
(d) A new weapon in the form of 7.62 mm rifle and Light Machine Gun was Note
introduced for the infantry.

Fig. 13.1: 7.62 MM Light Machine Gun 7.62 MM Rifle
(e) There were many other changes, which are not covered in this book. Students
interested can look up the Internet to get more information.

13.1.4 Reforms After The 1975 K.V. Krishna Rao Report

In 1975 the government appointed an expert panel to undertake a long- term
perspective plan for modernizing the Armed Forces upto the year 2000. General K.V.
Krishna Rao, the 12th Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army, headed the committee.
As per his report, major changes made were with the introduction of helicopters,
BOFORS Guns and track vehicles such as BMP and T72 tanks. The changes in the
Armed Forces were to make it a modern war-fighting machine and to win the wars.

Activity 13.1

Collect pictures of the following and paste in your notebook:

1. Cheetah helicopter

2. Bofors Gun
3. T70 M1 Tank

Intext Questions 13.1

1. Where did Indians attend military course during British rule?

2. Name the different phases of restructuring of the armed forces.

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MILITARY HISTORY 3