The arms and services of Indian Army form the basis of the organization’s existence. The collaboration between each of these specialized groups ensures a foolproof working structure that makes the Indian Army one of the most efficient land forces in the world. If you are appearing for an SSB interview, you must be aware about each of these arms and services, and also the one of your choice. Hence, to save you from any last-minute hassle, we build on the same.
Meaning of Arms and Services
Let us build from the basics. What does it mean to be the arms and services of Indian Army? For this, you need to understand a simple structure that keeps the Indian Army going:
As you can see, for its operational roles, the Indian Army is divided into two parts: the arms and services of Indian Army. The arms are further bifurcated into combat and support arms. Each has a specific role to play in the organization.
To put it simply, arms are branches of the Indian Army that are responsible for fighting the enemy directly. These include the direct combat arms, like the Infantry, and the support arms, like the Corps of Signals, among others. Similarly, services are branches which perform logistical, medical, technical, and other non-combat roles for the Indian Army.
Arms and Services of Indian Army
Now, let us understand each of the arms and services of Indian Army, which ensure a smooth functioning of these elite men and women. For your convenience, we have divided this section into three parts that will enhance your understanding.
Combat Arms
These are the first in the list of arms and services of Indian Army. The combat arms of Indian Army engage in direct confrontation with the enemy on the battlefield. These include:
- Infantry: This is the largest unit of the Indian Army’s combat arms, and directly involves in hand-to-hand combat. The youngblood often aspires to join the infantry regiments such as the Garhwal Rifles, and Parachute Regiment, among others.
- Mechanized Infantry: It is the mechanized version of the foot soldiers in BMPs, that is, infantry fighting vehicles, and destroy the enemy through rapid mobilization.
- Armoured Corps: This unit delivers firepower at the desired location with the help of Main Battle Tanks or MBTs, such as the T-90 and T-73 among others.
Combat Support Arms
Next in the list of arms and services of Indian Army are the combat support arms, which are a bifurcation of the arms. These units support the combating soldiers by providing support for crucial missions. The list includes:
- Artillery: It provides cover fire to the arms by operating from long distances and use howitzers, multi-barrel rocket launchers, field guns, and is also called the “God of War”.
- Army Air Defence: This unit defends the airspace and guards the sensitive areas like the headquarters. Unlike the IAF which involves in combat, the AAD is responsible for defending the airspace using radars and missile systems.
- Corps of Engineers: These elite men and women lay minefields, construct bridges, and other infrastructure using tractors, dozers, et cetera, ensuring that the soldiers advance without delay.
- Corps of Signals: This combat support arm provides communication support to the Indian Army and ensures its connectivity to the other services like IAF and Indian Navy.
- Army Aviation Corps: Lastly, the AAC provides combat and logistical support through airborne operations and comprises pilots of the Army. Unlike the IAF, this branch only uses helicopters for its missions, such as HAL Rudra, and LCH Cheetah.
Services
Now we come to the second part of the arms and services of Indian Army. The services provide logistical and other backend support to the Indian Army, ensuring that its missions are a success. We tell you about each one next.
- Army Service Corps: This is the oldest and largest of the services, and is responsible for providing, procuring, and distributing supplies to all the three services and the paramilitary.
- Army Ordnance Corps: It provides clothing, spares, tools, and maintains ammunition of the Indian Army for its battle-readiness.
- Corps of EME: This unit repairs and maintains equipment and weapon system, and ensures recovery of vehicle casualties in battlefield or otherwise. EME stands for Electronics and Mechanical Engineers.
- Military Intelligence Corps: It collates and collects raw data and converts it into actionable information that acts as the basis of all counterinsurgency operations.
- Army Medical Corps: This is the medical branch of Indian Army. It conducts yearly medical examination and provides facilities to serving and retired personnel as well as their dependents.
- Army Dental Corps: Just like AMC, this is the medical branch, which provides dental care to serving and retired personnel of the Armed Forces as well as their dependents.
- Military Nursing Service is also the medical branch of the Indian Armed Forces, and falls under the Armed Forces Medical Services.
- Corps of Military Police: It maintains vehicular discipline, prevents breach of security, and regulates the traffic within the cantonment of the Indian Army.
- Remount and Veterinary Corps: This unit procures, breeds, and trains all the animals held by the services.
- Judge and Advocate General: It is the legal branch of the Indian Army, which provides legal assistance to the organization and deals with military-related discipline cases.
- Pioneer Corps: It is the operational logistics arms of the Indian Army which provides well-trained and disciplined manpower where civilian one is unavailable for different reasons.
- Army Education Corps: This service provides educational training to troops and also conducts promotion exams for them.
- Army Postal Corps caters to all the postal service needs of the Indian Army from undertraining cadets to serving personnel.
Other Arms and Services of Indian Army
Other than the above-mentioned arms and services of Indian Army, we also have two separate bodies, that work closely with the organization. The first is the Territorial Army or TA, which acts as the second line of defence, and is open to people gainfully employed in the civilian world who want to experience the military life. Next, is the Defence Security Corps or DSC which provides security at the Ministry of Defence.
Final Thoughts
Despite their varied responsibilities, each of the arms and services of Indian Army works to its fullest to ensure a robust organization, which not only guards our land borders but also indulges in humanitarian and goodwill projects, which make every child salute it lovingly. If you’re going to appear for your SSB interview soon, take particular interest in knowing about the arm or service that you aspire to join, and prepare well.
