Agniveers set to join services by Dec 31 as Centre prepares to rollout 2-year extension

The latest batches of Agniveers from the army, navy and air force will pass out of their training establishments between November 13 and December 31 and join service, officials said, as the Centre implements a revised Agnipath framework offering those who miss out on retention two additional years in uniform and another chance at becoming regular soldiers.The revamped scheme will apply exclusively to the 300,000 Agniveers currently in service. (PTI)More than 2,700 navy Agniveers will complete their 16-week ab-initio training and pass out of INS Chilka, the navy’s sprawling lakeside training facility in Odisha, on November 13; air force Agniveers will follow in mid-December, and the army’s first batch – after the new model was rolled out last week – will pass out on December 31, the officials said. More than 600 regular Naviks of the coast guard will also complete their training alongside the navy Agniveers.Navy chief Admiral Krishna Swaminathan will be the chief guest and reviewing officer of the passing out parade in Chilka. It will be the largest batch to pass out of Chilka.The new Agnipath framework will apply only to existing Agniveers, as first reported by HT. The scheme was cleared by the Cabinet and unveiled by Chief of Defence Staff General NS Raja Subramani on November 4. The revamped scheme will apply exclusively to the 300,000 Agniveers currently in service. It is expected to undergo further changes for recruits inducted after December 31.The Agnipath reboot was announced by Subramani weeks before the three services were set to release 75% of Agniveers from their first batch after four years of service, retaining only the 25% selected on merit for another 15 years under the scheme’s earlier provisions.All existing Agniveers will become permanent after this two-year extended service, subject to meeting specific eligibility criteria and individual consent. Around 18,300 Agniveers were set to be discharged between mid-November and December 31, forming three-fourths of the 24,400 recruits inducted into the army, air force and navy in the first round of recruitment.The revamped recruitment model that guarantees full-term military service to all Agniveers will undergo a financial review, with higher salaries and future pension and gratuity payouts expected to increase the government's expenditure.Funding will not be a constraint, officials earlier said.“The higher outgo is expected to be partly offset by savings in training costs. The Agnipath reset will eliminate the need for additional training, reducing costs and keeping expenditure in check. In any case, national security comes above fiscal considerations,” one of them said.The government allocated ₹17,396 crore for the Agnipath scheme in the defence budget for 2026-27, marking a 58% jump over the budget estimate of ₹11,039 crore in the financial year 2025-26. The budget for the scheme across the three services was ₹7,471 crore in 2024-25.The government's pension bill has also been steadily rising. The defence budget for 2026-27 includes a pension outlay of ₹1.71 lakh crore, up from the budget estimate of ₹1.60 lakh crore in the financial year 2025-26.