NEW DELHI: The Army is gradually however steadily boosting its firepower with longer-range weapons with enhanced lethality, swarm drones and loiter munitions, night-fighting, monitoring and target-acquisition capabilities in the middle of the continuing military fight with China in eastern Ladakh and heightened tension across Arunachal Pradesh.

The Armys strategy encompasses force modernisation with innovation infusion and advancement of critical fight abilities, in addition to overcoming obsolescence in core abilities and updating tradition systems , top defence sources told TOI.Parallelly, there is the ongoing drive for force-restructuring and optimisation to improve the tooth-to-tail ratio by slashing non-operational flab in the 12-lakh strong force, in the background of the ballooning income and pension expenses continuing to put the capture on modernisation.Sources stated 61 capital acquisition agreements worth Rs 91,238 crore have been inked in the last 3 financial years, that include 44, valued at Rs 76,544 crore, with domestic suppliers including defence PSUs.Apart from these deals under the normal procurement procedure, the Army has actually also inked 68 contracts under the emergency situation acquisition route.

Another 84 emergency procurement deals remain in development, a source said.The induction of a broad selection of drones for infantry battalions, weapons programs, special forces and so on has likewise kicked off.

Shipment of four sets of swarm drones, each with 50 drones and an optimal series of 50-km, for instance, will happen in March-April.

These drones can carry 1 to 5 kg of high-explosive payloads, and also have kamikaze ability, another source said.As for precision-strike loitering munitions, which are explosive-armed kamikaze drones that wait to pick high-value enemy targets and then crash into them, the Army has advanced a minimum of seven man-portable and vehicle-mounted cases with ranges varying from 15 to 100 km through emergency situation procurements along with Make-II category projects (model development funded by market).

Deliveries of some will start before August, the source said.

A Make-II project is also under method for self-governing security and armed drone swarms, with 400 drones for high-altitude areas and 250 for deserts and plains.

These can be configured to carry 3-5 kg bombs and shaped charge top-attack ammunition to a maximum series of 50 km, he added.There has also been an unique focus on the induction of modern-day innovations and developments to monitor the numerous gaps along the LAC.

Weapons modernisation, is accompanying the induction of long-range vectors, consisting of missiles, rockets and smart munitions, together withhigh-altitude enablement of different weapon systems varying from the K-9 Vajra self-propelled tracked weapons to Pinaka multi-launch artillery rocket systems.