CDS Gen. Anil Chauhan Stresses Importance of Theatre Commands for Enhanced Military Jointness
NEW DELHI: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Anil Chauhan said on Tuesday that proposed theatre commands will lay the foundation for catapulting the armed forces into the next orbit of military preparedness and war fighting. He called upon the three services to create a joint culture as they move towards forming joint operational structures.
Speaking on "Jointmanship: The Way Ahead" as part of the 22nd Major General Samir Sinha memorial lecture, the CDS termed developing joint culture in the armed forces as Jointness 2.0, which is the way forward.
The Chief of Defence Staff said that Jointness 1.0 was about better bonhomie and consensus among the services, and as there were no major differences, there is an impetus to move towards the next level of jointness, which is Jointness 2.0.
His comments came as India is looking to implement the ambitious and long-awaited theaterisation plan. Under theatre commands, all assets of the Army, Navy and Air Force will be under the command of a single three-star Commander in an operational area. This will ensure a joint response to the adversary during a conflict. The need for the tri-service command was felt during the Kargil War.
The Indian Armed Forces currently have 19 commands.
Acknowledging the distinct culture of all three services, the CDS underscored that there is a need to create a fourth culture in the services.
“Joint culture, though different from service-specific culture, needs to respect the uniqueness of each service. We must be able to distil the best of each service and incorporate the highest common factor rather than settle for the least common denominator,” he said.
The Chief of Defence Staff mentioned various initiatives of symbology that are being processed towards fostering the joint culture, including Tri-Services participation in national events.
The CDS termed jointness and integration as prerequisites to the creation of functional integrated theatre commands and explained the significance of such commands. “The creation of such commands will separate the ‘operational’ functions from the raise-train-sustain (RTS) and other administrative functions and will allow greater focus of the operational commander on matters of security,” he said.
The CDS said the theatre commands will not be an end state but the beginning of the next set of reforms. He said: "Integrated theatre commands will lead to many reforms like single-to-multi-domain operations, fusing space and cyberspace into traditional domains, digitisation of battlefield information and visualisation and net-centric to data-centric, among others.
Stressing that the reforms in the Indian defence ecosystem are a necessity, the CDS said that nation-states across the globe are facing a new set of challenges. "The current flux in world order is forcing nations to review their security strategies. The rapid and unbridled march of technology is transforming the way future wars will be fought," he added.