According to the details provided by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha, the total shortage of officers in the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force is 9,259 while the number for below officer rank is 50,363

NEW DELHI: The armed forces are facing a shortage of nearly 60,000 personnel with the Army topping the list with over 27,000 vacant posts, the government said today.

According to the details provided by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha, the total shortage of officers in the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force is 9,259 while the number for below officer rank is 50,363.

Replying to a question, she said the total strength of the Army as on July 1 is 12.37 lakh personnel against the authorised strength of 12.64 lakh and the total shortage is 27,864.

The current strength of the Navy is 67,228 personnel and the number of vacant positions is 16,255.

She said the Indian Air Force is facing a shortage of 15,503 personnel against the authorised strength of 1.55 lakh.

The vacancies excluding personnel in dental and medical streams come to 59,622.