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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
Funding will not be a constraint, officials earlier said.
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 new Agnipath framework will apply only to existing Agniveers, as first reported by HT. “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.
