New Delhi: It is perhaps the biggest decision the Army Chief, General Bipin Rawat, has made in his efforts to restructure the 1.2 million force, to make it lean-and-mean, a 21st-century fighting unit. ARTRAC, or the Army Training Command, one of the seven in the army, will be moved from its headquarters in Shimla to Ambala in the next six months. This comes along with the decision to merge the Directorate of Military Training, currently in Army HQ in New Delhi, with ARTAC.

Importantly, ARTRAC, in Shimla since the early 1990s, and the place where future military doctrines are worked out, will need to liaison more with field formations, interact more with fighting units. “It is important for theoreticians to work with people who are part of the field army. It should not be out on a limb in Shimla,” a top official said. And in Ambala, is the headquarters of 2 Corps, one of the Army’s three strike corps.

nteraction with field formations apart, the 150 officers and several thousand men in ARTRAC, should also be more in touch with Army HQ and Ambala brings it closer. Which brings up the logistics issue.  The Army is readying for a swap: a sub-area in Ambala, a smaller outfit that looks are Haryana, Punjab, and Himachal, moves to Shimla, while ARTRAC comes to Ambala.

The Army’s future restructuring plans are already with the defence ministry. Other important decisions relate to the cutting of 1.5 lakh troops, a third of it by the end of this year, the merger of various units, the moving of Rashtriya Rifles directorate to Jammu and Kashmir, and interestingly, the virtual abolition of the post of brigadier, allowing colonels to be promoted directly to major-general rank, apart from those who would temporarily and for strictly operational reasons, be brigadiers when they are commanding brigades or independent battle groups as they would be renamed.

The final decision now rests with first, the defence ministry and then, the government.