INTEGRATED INTENT

Unified theatre commands can augment India’s military might, but concerns remain

- PRADIP R. SAGAR

In his Independence Day address in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India will soon have a chief of defence staff as its highest ranking officer in the armed forces. The decision, Modi said, was in sync with the changing nature of war and security strategies worldwide.

In January 2020, Gen Bipin Rawat took over as the first CDS. He promptly began brainstorming on how to streamline coordination between the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. After months of such efforts, the military is now preparing to implement its biggest-ever reforms—reorganising itself into theatre commands for synchronised operations in future wars. Much like the US and China, India plans to have five such commands by the end of 2022—the northern, western, peninsular, air defence and maritime commands.

These commands will have specialised units from the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and will be led by commanders drawn from the three services, depending on the function of the command. A high-level panel including vice chiefs of the three services and representatives from the ministries of finance, home affairs and law was recently constituted for wider consultation before the cabinet committee on security approves the reforms.

The Indian military functions under 17 single-service commands now. The three services, Rawat believes, discharge their duties with a marked lack of operational synergy. For instance, while India has eight commands focusing on the China front, it has just one unified command—the western theatre command, tasked with guarding its border with India.