7,476 posts of officers lying vacant in Army, 1,265 in Navy, 621 in IAF: Govt

The Army has 7,476 vacant posts of officers while the Navy and Air Force have 1,265 and 621 such vacancies, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said on Monday. In his written response to a question in Rajya Sabha, the minister also said that for "airmen, sailors, junior commissioned officers and other ranks", there are 97,177 vacant posts in the Army, 11,166 vacant posts in the Navy and 4,850 vacant posts in the IAF.

On the question of which regiments of the Army have the maximum vacancies, he responded: "The deficiency is spread across all arms and services of the Indian Army."

Bhatt said the government has taken a number of measures to reduce the shortages.


"These measures include sustained image projection, participation in career fairs and exhibitions and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career in the armed forces," the minister mentioned.