Pak Army to grow by 180,000; Change to offensive posture?

[shah1398]

Simple yaar...... PA is facing deficiency of officers. There is no other option but to increase the induction ratio per year.

There is not a single Army in the world who is operating on or above the sanctioned number of Officers or Soldiers. Shortage is everywhere. Nonetheless the uptake of cadets in PMA had already been increased during early days of Gen Kiyani's tenure.

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

I will prefer quality over quantity. We already got a lot of quantity but have a lot of room to develop in quality.
Increasing number of heads do not give enough punch in your force as much an advance weapon system.
Increase budget, increase ratio of size/budget.

Budget is also likely to increase, most likely to 10b.

 

[kaonalpha]

A ridiculous article. It's shortage of officers and nothing more ,no expansion till another 13 years. Only an addition of 1 extra division thats it.

 

[Aamir Hussain]

I don't think some special force is being built around a specific weapon or something of that sort.

What can be happening is that a serious rethink has been done in GHQ and the realization that we are increasingly using newer technologies and methods that require more educated and trained manpower is needed.

I have had the opportunity to interact, over a two year period, with soldiers and officers of a western nation and it made me realize that their average education and level of intelligence was much higher than that of third world nation -- of course for obvious reasons.

The time required to train an average soldier with a High School diploma was drastically cut down than say that of an eighth grade education or an individual who has passed middle. Concepts and methodologies of a more complex nature were easily introduced, reading material was quickly understood, and very little time was needed to learn newer concepts in a class room environment.

More complex AFV's, Tanks, UAV's, MRAP's, requires specialized maintenance, Artillery (Incl. SP's) with more demanding computation software and hardware, battlefield management systems, logistics and supply management systems, Helos with more training intensive on-board mission hardware and software now requires more than average intelligence. Battlefield Tactical rockets itself have become a weapon system that requires specialized training and methodology not to speak of the strategic nuke group.

Normal attrition of personnel in both non com, and officer cadre would require training of newer batches. with training becoming more complex and requiring more by the manual training that would require more time to assimilate the material -- it would be prudent to build out a larger pool of officer corps.

But then one can not set aside the theory that there is a real possibility that the force being raised for CPEC would necessitate increase in Officer Corps.

 

[RoadRunner401]

A military analyst said that the increase in the size of military was being necessitated by its continuing involvement in tribal areas, where troops are expected to stay at least till 2019; the creation of a security division for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor; and increased requirement of officers for paramilitary forces like Frontier Corps and Rangers. Additionally, troops are getting increasingly engaged with UN peacekeeping operations and disaster relief operations.

India’s aggressive posture towards Pakistan is also a cause of concern.

A military spokesman, meanwhile, said that the army was already facing a shortage of officers and the increased induction would help overcome that requirement.

The current size of the army is believed to be around 500,000 active troops. Army’s publicly known budget for the current fiscal year 2015-16 is Rs371 billion. The military’s budget has been on an average growing by around 11 per cent.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2015

 

[vsdave2302]

I will prefer quality over quantity. We already

Exactly, Many years ago, I had read one article. Indian army shall sharpen its reeth and slash the weight of tail/ It was on down sizing the strength by 50000 and adding new weapons.

 

[SipahSalar]

Exactly, Many years ago, I had read one article. Indian army shall sharpen its reeth and slash the weight of tail/ It was on down sizing the strength by 50000 and adding new weapons.

That was the Pakistani army my friend. In fact you can find the "tail" and "teeth" remark in the very first sentence.
Pakistan to reduce army size by 50,000 - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

We cut our size by 50,000 several years ago. But the number we cut were non-combatants who were doing menial jobs like cooks, tailers, janitors etc. Pak Fauj found it to expensive to permanently take in these people and then retire them with a good pension. So now PA hires such people on temporary contracts only.

 

[vsdave2302]

That was the Pakistani army my friend.
Pakistan to reduce army size by 50,000 - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

We cut our size by 50,000 several years ago. But the number we cut were non-combatants who were doing menial jobs like cooks, tailers, janitors etc. Pak Fauj found it to expensive to permanently take in these people and then retire them with a good pension. So now PA hires such people on temporary contracts only.

india had that plan also. Pakistan may also have done this . I agree.

 

[farhan_9909]

For a country of Pakistan size,we need something around 1 Million strong army.

Though i believe the recent increase is because we have deployed 1/4th of our army on western border and we are short of required troops on the eastern border

 

[Neutron]

I don't think some special force is being built around a specific weapon or something of that sort.

What can be happening is that a serious rethink has been done in GHQ and the realization that we are increasingly using newer technologies and methods that require more educated and trained manpower is needed.

I have had the opportunity to interact, over a two year period, with soldiers and officers of a western nation and it made me realize that their average education and level of intelligence was much higher than that of third world nation -- of course for obvious reasons.

The time required to train an average soldier with a High School diploma was drastically cut down than say that of an eighth grade education or an individual who has passed middle. Concepts and methodologies of a more complex nature were easily introduced, reading material was quickly understood, and very little time was needed to learn newer concepts in a class room environment.

More complex AFV's, Tanks, UAV's, MRAP's, requires specialized maintenance, Artillery (Incl. SP's) with more demanding computation software and hardware, battlefield management systems, logistics and supply management systems, Helos with more training intensive on-board mission hardware and software now requires more than average intelligence. Battlefield Tactical rockets itself have become a weapon system that requires specialized training and methodology not to speak of the strategic nuke group.

Normal attrition of personnel in both non com, and officer cadre would require training of newer batches. with training becoming more complex and requiring more by the manual training that would require more time to assimilate the material -- it would be prudent to build out a larger pool of officer corps.

But then one can not set aside the theory that there is a real possibility that the force being raised for CPEC would necessitate increase in Officer Corps.

Simple answer to your whole thesis........ 24 officers are required to be present in one infantry unit, check out from any friend how much officers are posted in his unit.
Rise in induction ratio is not due to few facts you articulated above.

You cannot employ officers for task a soldier is performing today. If you want to do so, you need to increase officers induction ratio more than 500 %.

 

[SipahSalar]

More complex AFV's, Tanks, UAV's, MRAP's, requires specialized maintenance, Artillery (Incl. SP's) with more demanding computation software and hardware, battlefield management systems, logistics and supply management systems, Helos with more training intensive on-board mission hardware and software now requires more than average intelligence. Battlefield Tactical rockets itself have become a weapon system that requires specialized training and methodology not to speak of the strategic nuke group.

You can never use an officer to take the place of a grunt. So much time, money and energy is spent on training an officer, if you expect him to take drive an AFV or MRAP (which drives like a very normal vehicle by the way) then that is a critical mistake.

Secondly, there are no 8th grade pass in our Army. Pak Army requires its jawans to be at least Metric graduates. And I have to say this again and again, our JCO's are very well educated and can handle any weapon on the battlefield.

The only thing that may need a highly trained person to operate is the UAV. But I think UAVs are mostly flown by Pakistan Air Force officers, at least the big ones like Burraq. The smaller tactical UAV's can be flown by any one who has spent a few days with the controller.

Is there a break-down by province of where the officers come from or does the P.A. not care about such things?

Pure numbers wise, the largest number of officers are Punjabis. But if you talk about ratio in proportion to the population, then you can say Pakhtuns have a highest representation in the army compared to their population.

 

[MastanKhan]

You can never use an officer to take the place of a grunt. So much time, money and energy is spent on training an officer, if you expect him to take drive an AFV or MRAP (which drives like a very normal vehicle by the way) then that is a critical mistake.

Secondly, there are no 8th grade pass in our Army. Pak Army requires its jawans to be at least Metric graduates. And I have to say this again and again, our JCO's are very well educated and can handle any weapon on the battlefield.

The only thing that may need a highly trained person to operate is the UAV. But I think UAVs are mostly flown by Pakistan Air Force officers, at least the big ones like Burraq. The smaller tactical UAV's can be flown by any one who has spent a few days with the controller.


Pure numbers wise, the largest number of officers are Punjabis. But if you talk about ratio in proportion to the population, then you can say Pakhtuns have a highest representation in the army compared to their population.

Hi,

I believe that the setup of our army should be based on the similar setup of the U S military----where the NCO's and JCO's take a very leading role in maintenance, management and operational preparedness.

Secondly----with the inception of Gwadar---pak military needs 2 to 5 division strength to protect its coastal assets and areas of Baluchistan.

One if not two cantonments must be established in FATA----. And then there is the case of an expeditionary force as well.

 

[VCheng]

Hi,

I believe that the setup of our army should be based on the similar setup of the U S military----where the NCO's and JCO's take a very leading role in maintenance, management and operational preparedness.

Secondly----with the inception of Gwadar---pak military needs 2 to 5 division strength to protect its coastal assets and areas of Baluchistan.

One if not two cantonments must be established in FATA----. And then there is the case of an expeditionary force as well.

As long as the economy can sustain these suggested expansions, it is all good. The economy is the key. Always.

 

[Jaanbaz]

Is there a break-down by province of where the officers come from or does the P.A. not care about such things?

Why are you suddenly so concerned about the ethnic make up of Pak Armed Forces?

 

[Solomon2]

Why are you suddenly so concerned about the ethnic make up of Pak Armed Forces?

Wondering if it's changed with the expansion. In the past, I've read, army is mostly Punjabi with Pushtuns represented in excess of their proportion to the population. Expansion is opportunity to make officer corps more representative.