Page 224 - Leadership in the Indian Army

their Corps. A briefing from the Commandant of the British Army’s Signals
School at Catterick Camp on their future thinking with regard to signal
communications in the field made it apparent that, both in the USA and UK,

they were not only depending on secure radio relay, but also going in for
digital techniques. He made a detailed study of the HOBART and BRUIN
systems, that were being planned in the UK, as well as the area grid system
being followed by the USA.
In the event of a war, Raj realised that our armed forces would either
remain within our own territory, or at best exploit success to about a 100
miles or so in enemy territory. He concluded that future signal

communications within each corps should use secure radio relay systems on
an interconnected grid of communication nodes, covering an area of 100 ×
100 miles. Divisional and brigade HQ could then hook on to the nearest
such node, based on a computer-controlled digital automatic electronic
switch. During mobile operations, the grid would roll forwards or
backwards, with nodes leap-frogging ahead or behind, without any

disruption in communications. The system would provide each crucial
appointment with a fixed number, and no matter where he moved within the
corps area, he would be able to receive speech, teleprinter, fax and data
communication automatically.
The new communication system conceived by Raj was named AREN, an
acronym for Army Radio Engineered Network. It sounded like ‘RN’, which
were the two initials of his name. Major General J. Mayadas, who was then

a major, vividly recalls that in 1964, when Raj returned from the UK after
the SOs-in-C conference, his enthusiasm was boundless. He quickly
assembled a team of officers to give concrete shape to his ideas. Apart from
Brigadier I.D. Verma, who was his deputy, the team included Colonel K.S.
Garewal; Lieutenant Colonels M.S. Sodhi, J. Mayadas, M.B. Hart and S.L.
Juneja; and Majors R.K. Gupte, B.S. Paintal, M.K. Ghosh, M.C. Rawat and

Sushil Nath. (Four of them—Verma, Garewal, Sodhi and Ghosh—rose to
the rank of Lieutenant General and became SOs-in-C, while the others—
except for Dick Hart who retired prematurely—became Major Generals.)
There were long sessions running late into the night, but everyone was so
enthused by Raj’s passion that there were no complaints, except from the
wives.
The process was frenzied, and was interrupted only by the Indo–Pak War

of 1965. After the dust had settled, they began where they had left off.