New Army Vice Chief to focus on modernisation of defence forces

New Delhi, Nov. 1 (ANI): The new Vice Chief of the Army Staff, Lieutenant General Shri Krishna Singh, on Tuesday said that his focus is on the restructuring of the forces for internal and external security of the country and endeavour to mould the Indian Army to be most modern.

Lieutenant General Shri Krishna Singh, who today took charge as the new Vice Chief of the Indian Army, is the first officer commissioned after the 1971 war to rise to the post of Vice Chief of Army Staff.

Lieutenant General Singh told the media here that his focus would be on the modernisation of the forces.

"The major challenge is that we are in the process of a lot of restructuring and doing a lot of modernisation, acquisitions. So these are the ones, which are, you know, how we manage the transition to become a very modern army that is going to be our major challenge," he said.

Lieutenant General Singh further mentioned that the modernisation of the defence forces is essential for the internal and external security of the country.

"In both external as well as internal security- the role of the army and basically from the external point of view, we are getting well prepared. From the internal challenges also we are doing well and in J andK (Jammu and Kashmir) and northeast, but these are challenges where you know the militants tend to acquire new techniques and we have to be always vigilant to make sure that we are one step ahead of them," he said.

An officer from the Gorkha Rifles, Lieutenant General Shri Krishna Singh replaced Lt. Gen. Arvinder Singh Lamba who retired on Monday.

After paying floral tribute to the eternal soldier's memorial known as the Amar Jawan Jyoti, Lieutenant General Singh inspected the formal Guard of Honour at the Army Headquarters.

Lieutenant General Singh commanded a brigade in Siachen Glacier, an infantry division on Line of Control (LoC), a corps in high altitude in Jammu and Kashmir and was chief of South Western Command before assuming his new responsibility. (ANI)