The Indian Army is all set to recruit “domain experts” as officers and junior commissioned officers in the force to look after areas that the forces are keen to adopt to have an edge over the enemy, said army sources.
The army opened up 16 technology clusters in areas as diversified as space and laser weapons to IOT (Internet of Things), 3D printing, and robotics.
“We are reorienting and restructuring the organization to move ahead with time and will be recruiting domain experts.
“The first batch may be recruited by the middle of 2025 for which the advertisement is likely to be issued in a month,” Lt Gen Rakesh Kapoor, Deputy Chief of the Army Staff.
Those with a master’s degree will be recruited in the rank of officers while the graduates will be taken either as JCOs or ORs (other ranks).
Clusters have opened in areas like cyber warfare, quantum technologies; 5G/ 6G communication technologies; augmented reality/virtual reality; artificial intelligence and machine learning, remotely piloted aircraft; counter-drone technology, blockchain chain, and loitering munitions among others.
Sources in the armed forces note that absorption of nice technologies and developing a home-grown supply chain for such technologies are two big lessons from the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts. “We need to catch up on non-combat, non-kinetic type of warfare, said an officer.
The Indian Army has signed agreements with some of the IITs to encourage the development and absorption of niche technologies. The military is also a part of the National Quantum Mission.
