Monday, October 17 2005 20:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Top armed forces commanders, meeting here today (Oct 17, 2005), are finalising concrete plans to speed up the process of turning them into a network-centric force for rapid deployment.

To create a network-centric Army and Air Force was the main thrust at the week-long top Commanders conference of the Army and IAF, which opened today, as the top brass asserted that India had to catch up with advancement made in the field by the Western Armies.

The Navy, which has already rolled in the network-centric warfare preparations, will be taking stock of the progress when its commanders meet here from Wednesday.

Naval Chief Admiral Arun Prakash has recently said that Navy had advanced plans to have the coverage of entire Indian Ocean region by using satellite and land-based receiver platforms to interlink armament, intelligence and communication set ups of the warship flotilla whether in mid-ocean or on shore.

Addressing the commanders, Air Chief S P Tyagi said, "the IAF now has to look towards meeting the vision of strategic reach and focus has to be directed towards network-centric operations".

Top army commanders also meeting here are to give final touches to an anti-insurgency doctrine as well as to focus on modernisation of the force and making it 'leaner'.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee would address the commanders at a combined meeting on Thursday.