New Delhi, 25 April (Hindustan). For the first time, the Indian Army will induct 10 women officers into the Artillery Regiment. The first batch of five officers from the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai, will be inducted on April 29, while the remaining five will be inducted later this year. This year, more than 10 per cent women officers from each batch joining the Army will be inducted into the Artillery Regiment.
Army Chief General Manoj Pandey had in January this year taken the decision to open his artillery regiment for women army officers. Later, the government also approved this proposal of the army last month. Army combat units include guns of various calibers, mortars, rocket systems, missiles, remotely operated aircraft, weapon-locating radars, medium-range battlefield surveillance radars, long-range surveillance systems, designated as artillery regiments. It is one of the largest branches in the army after infantry.
About 40 women officers are commissioned into the Army every year from the Officers Training Academy, Chennai. This year’s passing out parade will be held in Chennai this month and the first women officers to be inducted into the Artillery Regiment will be from this batch. This batch of men and women will undergo training for a few months in any Artillery Field Regiment or Medium Regiment post commissioning. After this all the youths will go through the officers’ course where they will be given special technical training on gunnery.
A senior military officer told that training will be given in terms of artillery regiment for less than six months. There will be no separate course for women artillery officers and they will undergo the same course as their male counterparts. After completion of this training, they will be deployed in other units including the border of China and Pakistan. There is also a possibility that they may be posted as Gun Position Officers after being posted to the unit. The officer explained that each regiment had a gun officer, who was responsible for deploying the guns at a designated location, firing them, and moving the guns to a different location if needed.
They can then be posted as Observation Post Officers, where they are on the frontline. There can be postings as battery commanders, commanding officers of batteries or regiments, and commanders of troops. The Army has 1,705 women officers, who have so far served in the Army Air Defence, Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers, Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps and Intelligence Corps apart from the Army Education Corps, but this is the first There is an opportunity when women are being deployed in the Artillery Regiment.
