The Armed Forces are no more considered a viable career option and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission to make the Services more attractive has not been able to reduce the shortage of 14,448 officers in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.

The Defence Ministry which is engaged in the task of making a career in the Armed Forces more attractive is not successful in reducing the shortage of officers..

"There has been shortage of officers in the Armed Forces. The shortage of officers in the Army is around 11,500 and in the Navy, the shortage is 1606. The number of vacancies in Air Force is 1342," Defence Minister AK Antony said on Wednesday.

"The shortage is partly attributable to accretions in the Armed Forces from time to time, tough selection procedures, difficult service conditions coupled with perceived high degree of risk involved in service career," he said in Rajya Sabha.

Antony said that a number of steps have been taken to attract the talented youth to join the defence forces.

"All officers including those in Short Service Commission (SSC) are now eligible to hold substantive rank of Captain, Major and Lieutenant Colonel after two, six and 13 years of reckonable service respectively. The tenure of SSC officers has been increased from 10 to 14 years," the Defence Minister said.

"A total number of 750 posts of Lt. Colonel have been upgraded to Colonel towards implementation of AV Singh Committee Report (Phase-I).

"Further, 1896 additional posts in the ranks of Colonel, Brigadier, Major General and Lieutenant General and their equivalents in the other two Services have been upgraded towards implementation of AV Singh Committee Report (Phase-II)," he added. (ANI)