NEW DELHI: Top Army commanders on Tuesday kicked off discussions to transform the over 12.5 lakh strong organisation into a lean, mean, rapidly-deployable and operationally versatile force, which will among other things entail slashing manpower by around 1.5 lakh personnel over the next six-seven years to save around Rs 6,000-7,000 crore annually in revenue expenditure.The four studies conducted on force reorganisation and optimisation, flattening headquarters at different levels, cadre review and terms of engagement for officers and jawans, all of which were headed by Lt-Generals, were presented to Army chief General Bipin Rawat , chiefs of the six regional commands and one training command, among other senior officers.Grappling with a ballooning revenue expenditure that leaves little for modernisation, the Army plans to launch the massive transformative exercise by early-2019 after recommendations of the four studies are finalised and approved, as was first reported by TOI last month The recommendations range from increasing the combat force ratio by slashing non-operational flab and downsizing the Army HQs by merging or relocating different directorates to creating integrated composite brigades under Major-Generals, eliminating most of the divisional headquarters and abolishing the Brigadier-rank.Consider this: In the Army’s 2018-2019 budget of Rs 1.53 lakh crore, the revenue expenditure (salaries and day-to-day running costs) has ballooned to 83 per cent, outstripping the capital one for modernisation at 17 per cent by far. "This cannot be sustained any longer because modernisation is suffering. The government is clear it cannot hike the defence budget in a major way. The Army has no option but to work towards achieving a 60 per cent (revenue): 40 per cent (capital) ratio in the years ahead," said a senior officer."Different points raised by the seven Army commanders on Tuesday will now be incorporated in the studies and wider feedback will be taken before the recommendations are finalised. They will now be discussed at the Army commanders conference in October," he added.A major proposal is the creation of integrated composite brigades, with four to five battalions each instead of the existing three, which ties in with the ongoing cadre review of officers that has suggested the radical step of doing away with the rank of Brigadier to ensure better career prospects and parity with the civil services as well as arrest its greying profile of commanders, as was earlier reported by TOI The Army currently has 14 corps and 49 divisions under its six operational commands. While some divisional HQs, like the ones under the four "strike corps" (1 Corps at Mathura, 2 Corps at Ambala, 21 Corps at Bhopal and the new 17 Mountain Strike Corps) will be retained, most will be abolished. "Each divisional headquarters at present has 35-40 officers, with many more soldiers and infrastructure," said an officer.