New Delhi: Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Bipin Rawat has set out to create a common Air Defence Command to secure the country from aerial attacks.
Also, he has directed that efforts be made to cut out infructuous ceremonial activities, which are manpower intensive.
Currently while Air Force is primarily responsible for air defence, Army and Navy too have their own air defense systems.
Gen. Rawat held a meeting with functionaries of Integrated Defence Staff and directed various branch heads to come up with recommendations for inter-service synergy and jointness in a time bound manner. He directed that a proposal to create Air Defence Command be prepared by June 30. He also set out priorities for execution of synergy by June 30 and December 31.
Some of the areas identified for jointness and synergy among Army, Air Force and Navy include creation of common logistics support pools in stations where two or more services have their presence.
Emphasising collegiate system of functioning, Gen. Rawat directed that all three services and Coast Guard must be consulted and their views obtained in a time bound manner. “Decisions will, however, be taken to ensure optimisation of resources,” said officials.
As CDS, Gen Rawat will be the Principal Military Advisor to the defence minister on all tri-services matters besides helming the newly set up department of military affairs (DMA).
The Chief of the Defence Staff will have a key role in ensuring optimum utilisation of allocated budget, ushering in more synergy in procurement, training and operations of the services through joint planning and integration.
