General Manoj Pande took over as the new Chief of the Army Staff on May 1, 2022. We, at SP Guide Publications, congratulate General Pande on his appointment as the COAS and wish him all the success in his new role. Under his leadership, the Indian Army seems poised for glorious days ahead.

The new Chief is softspoken, self-effacing, understated, humble, open-minded and a thorough gentleman and has the distinction of becoming the very first COAS from the Corps of Engineers. The lead article in this issue of the magazine is on the new COAS, written by Major General Atanu Pattanaik (Retd), a course mate of the new Chief. It gives an insight on General Pande’s personality, demeanour, leadership qualities and the challenges that he will face. The prime contributors to this challenging negative environment are an expansionist China, unsettled neighbourhood in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, COVID pandemic & the raging war in Ukraine with no end in sight, with other issues like the creation of theatre commands and integrating the Army’s modernisation plans with the Government’s vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. With his calm and composed empathetic persona, General Pande is just the right person to take on these challenges.

The Chief is well aware of all these challenges & immediately after taking over gave out his priorities especially with regard to operational preparedness; capability development & force modernisation dove tailed through the process of indigenisation and Atmanirbharta; to enhance inter service cooperation & synergy and to look after the well-being and welfare of our brave soldiers as well as ex-servicemen. All this is covered in this issue in an article by Ayushee Chaudhary.

We are extremely pleased to include in this issue, an article on how the country is moving towards ‘Atmanirbharta’ in defence manufacturing, written by Ravi Kant, Chairman & Managing Director, Munitions India Limited and Vijay Mittal, Joint Secretary, Government of India. We welcome such initiative from India’s policy makers and industry leaders sharing their thoughts and expertise. As a glowing example of ‘Atmanirbharta’, the production of K9 Vajra Artillery guns in India by L&T is documented in an article by Lt General Naresh Chand (Retd).

There are a couple of technology articles in this issue. Lt General Naresh Chand (Retd) talks about the trends in Munitions covering latest technologies like Precision Guided Munitions and Loitering Munitions while Neetu Dhulia covers the ‘Exoskeleton’, a wearable Robot that enables soldiers with improved strength.

Pakistan is in a state of turmoil with continuous political tug-of-war and relentless terror attacks by the TTP Pakistan which is supported by the Taliban Government in Afghanistan. This has led to a serious deterioration in Pakistan’s relations with the Taliban. Lt General P.C. Katoch (Retd) gives a very interesting insight in an article in this issue.

As usual, there are other article of interest in this issue which ends with the News Digest.

We wish joyful reading to you all discerning readers!