While the country applauds the actions of the defence forces on the borders, the citizens are largely unaware that each unit of the fighting and supporting arms of the Army are battling an acute shortage of officers. Some combat units are even staffed at a deficiency of 30 to 40 per cent. Last year, the Centre had told the Lok Sabha that there was an overall shortage of 9,096 officers in the defence forces — the Army (7,298), the Navy (1,606) and the Air Force (192).