Defence: Artillery recast as Army’s strike formation

MONTHS after the Indian Army announced restructuring of its war-fighting units, the Ministry of Defence has gotten down to equip specialised regiments, called Shaktibaan, with new technology, including loitering ammunition and swarm drones.The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the apex decision-making body of the Ministry of Defence, this week okayed the procurement of loitering ammunition for Shaktibaan regiments.The Army has a target of having 25 Shaktibaan regiments, pre-positioned at specific locations along the western frontier with Pakistan and the northern front with China. These regiments, coupled with specialised units called the Divyaastra batteries, mark the evolution of the Indian artillery with modern-day needs of precision warfare.Divyaastra batteriesSet up post Operation Sindoor (May 7-10, 2025) against Pakistan, the Divyaastra batteries — as the units in an Artillery regiment are known — carry long-range artillery guns, surveillance drones and anti-drone systems backed by AI-based fusion centres collating real-time data.Shaktibaan regiments will use loitering ammunition and swarm drones as means of battle and not the regular artillery guns.The restructuring was announced by Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi at an event in Kargil in July. It marks the first change to the Army’s battle structure post Op Sindoor.The loitering ammunition will be of two types: long range and medium range. The ammunition can stay in air for a specific period and then ground controllers can direct it to hit the identified targets. The equipment would be produced locally.Several types of swarm drones have been inducted and tried out at various altitudes. An indigenous loitering ammunition called Nagastra is already available.About the transformationThe Artillery is moving from just having traditional guns to now functioning as integrated strike formations. There are some 260 field formations of the Artillery and the move marks a fundamental re-conceptualisation of modern warfare. Shaktibaan and Divyaastra are not just upgrades, they constitute a re-imagining of how the Army would conduct offensive operations by aligning conventional firepower, unmanned systems and AI-enabled targeting.Traditional Indian Army artillery regiments operate within a standardised structure established a century ago. This would be of three batteries, each comprising six guns, totalling 18 guns per regiment. This structure relies on firepower, with the artillery gun being the primary lethal instrument. Traditional silos — artillery, reconnaissance, and air defence — operate as separate, hierarchically coordinated entities.Different architectureThe Shaktibaan regiment has a fundamentally different architecture — it would have two units firing loitering ammunition and a dedicated swarm drone unit. Shaktibaan regiments would bring speed in detecting, analysing and engaging enemy targets.Divyaastra occupies a critical middle ground — combining the sustained firepower of conventional artillery with the precision, flexibility, and autonomy of emerging unmanned technologies and AI. Five such Divyaastra batteries have been set up and were validated during an exercise, ‘Divya Drishti’, conducted in east Sikkim in August.Each contains multi-domain strike formations capable of conducting deep-precision strikes, real-time surveillance, area defence, and independent operations. The UAV will provide real-time surveillance feed and aid in target acquisition.It has integrated air defence against the enemy UAVs and AI-enabled processing inputs. It can automatically recommend targeting solutions. When a reconnaissance drone detects an enemy position, the target information is instantly fed into the AI-enabled fusion centre, which calculates the optimal engagement ammunition to be fired — a loitering missile or drone strike.A connected counter-drone system employs electronic jamming and the laser-based kinetic kill provides multi-layer protection against approaching threats. All the inputs flow to the Akashteer Integrated Command and Control System.A 2022 study on ‘Re-organisation and Rightsizing of the Indian Army’ had reviewed operational structures to make them future-ready. An ARTRAC training roadmap requires reorienting the entire educational infrastructure of gunner schools and regimental centres.

Defence: Artillery recast as Army’s strike formation

Procurement of loitering ammo marks a new journey for the Shaktibaan regiments

Ajay Banerjee

Defence: Artillery recast as Army’s strike formation

Procurement of loitering ammo marks a new journey for the Shaktibaan regiments

Ajay Banerjee

Unlock Premium Insights in This Article