The Indian Army runs 14 Corps across the country — and one of the most common exam traps is mixing up which Corps sits where.
MCQ Questionsâś… Must Know
The Corps is the top field formation
- The Indian Army has 14 Corps. Each Corps is commanded by a Lieutenant General, called the Corps Commander, and is made up of three or four divisions.
Three Corps types
- Corps come in three types: Strike, Holding, and Mixed. The three main Strike Corps are 1 Corps, 2 Corps, and 21 Corps, meant for major offensive operations.
A frequently tested set of Corps and HQs
- 3 Corps (Spear Corps) is headquartered at Dimapur, Nagaland. 4 Corps (Gajraj Corps) is at Tezpur, Assam. 14 Corps (Fire and Fury Corps) is at Leh, Ladakh.
A common mismatch trap
- 15 Corps (Chinar Corps) is headquartered at Srinagar, not 33 Corps. 33 Corps (Trishakti Corps) actually sits at Sukna, near Siliguri, West Bengal — a frequent exam mix-up.
đź’ˇ Good to Know
Names come from the city or a nickname
- A Corps’ name can come from its headquarters city, or from an evocative nickname. IV Corps is called Gajraj Corps, meaning ‘King Elephant.’
More named Corps and HQs
- I Corps sits at Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. II Corps, the Kharga Corps, sits at Ambala, Haryana. XII Corps, the Desert Corps, sits at Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
Six operational Commands, plus training
- The Army runs six operational Commands and one training Command. Each is led by a General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, also a Lieutenant General.
Where each Command sits
- Northern Command is at Udhampur. Western Command is at Chandimandir. Central Command is at Lucknow. Eastern Command is at Kolkata. South Western Command is at Jaipur.
Test Yourself
🌟 Great to Know
The Army’s oldest Command
- Southern Command, headquartered at Pune, has been active since 1895. It is the Indian Army’s oldest command, predating Independence by more than five decades.
Corps sits below Command in the hierarchy
- A Command oversees several Corps within a large geographic zone. The Corps itself is the highest field-level formation, one step below Command in the Army’s structure.
A relatively young mountain-warfare Corps
- IX Corps, the Rising Star Corps, is headquartered at Yol Cantonment, Himachal Pradesh. It was raised more recently than most Corps, with a mountain-warfare focus.
Training gets its own Command
- Army Training Command (ARTRAC), headquartered at Shimla, is the seventh Command. It oversees training and doctrine rather than an operational geographic zone.
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