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In modern warfare, multi-domain operations hold the key, with all elements operating together – nobody fights alone. Tanks, mechanised infantry, drones, cyber capabilities, electronic warfare, precision weapons and real-time intelligence are expected to operate as a single, integrated combat system. It is this fundamental shift in the character of warfare that has prompted the Indian Army to bring its Armoured Corps and Mechanised Infantry Regiment back under one command.
In keeping with current and future needs, it reversed an organisational separation that had existed for years, signalling a broader doctrinal shift towards multi-domain operations.
The merger of the Armoured Corps and the Mechanised Infantry Directorates into a unified Directorate General Mechanised Forces became effective on June 4, marking one of the Army’s most significant structural reforms in recent years.
Senior Army officials describe it as far more than an administrative exercise. It is aimed at sharpening operational efficiency by ensuring that the Army’s principal land combat arms plan, train and fight together in an increasingly complex battlefield where success depends on seamless integration rather than individual excellence.
The decision reflects lessons drawn from recent conflicts across the world.
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the Armenia-Azerbaijan clashes, the Israel-Hamas conflict, India’s Operation Sindoor, and the recent fighting in West Asia have all demonstrated that technology is rapidly redefining warfare. Unmanned systems, precision strikes, information warfare (IW), cyber operations, and electronic warfare (EW) are no longer supporting elements but integral components of combat. As hybrid warfare and short-duration, high-intensity conflicts become the norm, the Army believes the requirement for close synergy between armour and mechanised infantry has increased manifold.
The unified Directorate General Mechanised Forces has therefore been tasked with functioning as a single apex organisation responsible for enhancing operational effectiveness, streamlining capability development, harmonising doctrine, strengthening decision-making and improving resource optimisation across the mechanised force. Officials say the transformation reflects the Army’s commitment to preparing for future battlefields by combining the experience and expertise of both arms under a common institutional framework.
Army officials argue that while warfare is expanding into space, cyber and the electromagnetic spectrum, the primacy of land operations in the Indian subcontinent remains unchanged. Mechanised Forces continue to be the decisive instrument for translating battlefield success into territorial control. However, modern mechanised warfare demands far greater integration than before, requiring tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, reconnaissance assets, drones, and precision fires to function as a single cohesive force rather than as separate combat arms.
The Army has therefore been consciously moving away from a platform-centric approach towards what it describes as a “system-of-systems” model. Mechanised formations are evolving into combined-arms ecosystems in which reconnaissance regiments will serve as configured forces capable of independent kinetic operations, unconventional missions, and non-contact precision targeting in a multi-domain environment. Tanks and Infantry Combat Vehicles (ICVs) are also expected to evolve into command nodes capable of controlling multiple unmanned platforms, significantly extending their reach, survivability and lethality without proportionately increasing battlefield exposure.
The latest restructuring also carries considerable historical significance. Mechanised Infantry was formally constituted on April 2, 1979, when its administration was transferred from the Directorate General of Infantry to the Directorate of Armoured Corps, which later became the Directorate General of Mechanised Forces in 1986. During its formative years, the Army converted existing battalions from leading infantry regiments, including the Madras, Sikh, Kumaon, Dogra, Jat, Gorkha, and Garhwal Rifles, into mechanised infantry units rather than raising entirely new battalions.
The operational logic behind the move is difficult to dispute. Mechanised infantry enables soldiers to advance at the speed of armoured formations while simultaneously protecting tanks from close-range anti-tank teams, which have become one of the greatest threats on today’s battlefield. The consequences of ignoring this principle were demonstrated during the opening stages of the Russia-Ukraine war, when Russian armoured columns advancing without adequate infantry support suffered devastating losses to portable anti-tank weapons around Kyiv.
For military planners across the world, the conflict reinforced a lesson as old as mechanised warfare itself – tanks operating in isolation are highly vulnerable, whereas armour and infantry fighting together dramatically improve each other’s combat effectiveness.
The Indian Army’s own experience during Operation Sindoor has reinforced many of these conclusions. The operation accelerated several organisational reforms, including the raising of Bhairav battalions, Rudra brigades and Ashni drone platoons, while also prompting rapid adaptations such as fitting BMP-2 infantry combat vehicles with anti-drone protection cages to counter first-person-view drones and loitering munitions.
These battlefield innovations reflect the Army’s effort to adapt quickly to emerging threats, in which unmanned systems increasingly share the battlefield with conventional armoured formations.
The reorganisation also coincides with the Army’s preparations to induct the indigenous Zorawar light tank, developed by DRDO and Larsen & Toubro for high-altitude operations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Conceived after the 2020 Galwan crisis exposed the limitations of heavier tanks in mountainous terrain, the 25-tonne platform represents another step in modernising India’s mechanised forces for future conflicts.
Viewed in its entirety, the merger of the Armoured Corps and Mechanised Infantry is not merely an administrative decision but a doctrinal statement. It reflects the Army’s recognition that future wars will be fought across multiple domains simultaneously, where victory will depend less on individual platforms than on the ability to integrate tanks, infantry, drones, cyber, electronic warfare and precision weapons into a single, connected combat system.
In multi-domain operations, every element must operate together because the battlefield no longer rewards isolated excellence – it rewards integrated force.
Ravi Shankar
Dr Ravi Shankar has over two decades of experience in communications, print journalism, electronic media, documentary film making and new media.
He makes regular appearances on national television news channels as a commentator and analyst on current and political affairs. Apart from being an acknowledged Journalist, he has been a passionate newsroom manager bringing a wide range of journalistic experience from past associations with India’s leading media conglomerates (Times of India group and India Today group) and had led global news-gathering operations at world’s biggest multimedia news agency- ANI-Reuters. He has covered Parliament extensively over the past several years. Widely traveled, he has covered several summits as part of media delegation accompanying the Indian President, Vice President, Prime Minister, External Affairs Minister and Finance Minister across Asia, Africa and Europe.
