Indian Army to train civil defence instructors in 12 states for drone, air-raid and hybrid threats

India's Ministry of Home Affairs announced on Thursday 23 October that the Indian Army will train civil defence instructors at its own training establishments, in what the ministry called a first-of-its-kind pilot to prepare civilians for modern security threats. The first phase covers 12 states and union territories and is due to be finished by the second week of November 2026.

According to the ministry, each participating state or union territory will send 50 people to be trained as civil defence master trainers, for a total of 600 in the first round. They will attend a three-day specialised course run by the Army. The scheme is being carried out by the ministry's Directorate General of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards, working together with the Army.

The 12 regions chosen for the pilot are Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The New Indian Express, citing ministry officials, reported that the course would be held at designated Army facilities and that each region had been asked to nominate its 50 candidates.

The syllabus is split into three parts. The first deals with threat awareness, including modern and hybrid warfare, drones and the danger of air raids. The second covers protection and emergency response, such as guarding critical infrastructure, fire safety, awareness of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear hazards, casualty care and search and rescue. The third teaches emergency communications, cyber hygiene, digital resilience, civil-military coordination and incident command.

The plan relies on a cascade. Once they finish the Army course, each master trainer is expected to train 100 civil defence volunteers in their home state or territory. The ministry said this could spread the new skills to about 60,000 volunteers across the 12 pilot regions.

The programme follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day address from the Red Fort on 15 August 2026, in which he called for a civil defence network built around modern systems, new technology and up-to-date preparedness to meet emerging security challenges. The home ministry presented the Army training scheme as the first concrete step towards that goal.

The ministry described the initiative as a significant move towards closer civil-military coordination, pairing the Army's operational experience with the reach of the civil defence volunteer corps. It said the aim is better preparedness for emerging threats, more coordinated emergency response and stronger protection of critical infrastructure. Depending on how the pilot phase goes, the training is to be extended to the remaining states and union territories in stages, the ministry and both newspapers reported.

The ministry did not publish a budget for the programme, the names of the Army establishments that will host the courses, or a timetable for the later phases. It also did not say how the volunteers trained under the scheme would be organised or called up during an emergency.