The Narendra Modi government has not yet appointed the next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), but the Indian military is in the process of transitioning to integrated theatre commands, with at least two meetings held since January to discuss their structure and other aspects of their operations.
At least three leaders of the Indian Army, Navy, and Indian Air Force (IAF) attended the latest of these meetings in Lucknow last week. In January, top officers from the three services had also discussed theaterisation in Jaipur. Government sources also reported that the Army had deliberations concerning theaterisation in the last week of January. In addition to these meetings, the services are also conducting internal discussions to refine the modalities.
According to the sources, aspects of the employment of theaters in different operational scenarios were discussed during the tri-service meetings at the Army’s Southwest Command in Jaipur and Central Command in Lucknow. IAF sources told News18 that they are studying the possibility of employing their resources permanently in different theatres, while the services continue fleshing out the finer details of theaterisation and establishing a consensus.
There are currently 17 commands in the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force combined. At present, there are plans to roll them into four integrated theater commands – one maritime theatre command, one air defence command, and two land-based western and eastern theatre commands. The Army’s northern command and the AOC (J&K) of the IAF will remain out of the theatre commands, for now, due to security concerns.
The Chief of Defence Staff had a top charter to advance theatreisation in India, and the country’s first CDS, General Bipin Rawat, was playing an active role in this transition by overseeing a series of studies and simultaneous discussions across the three services. Four commanders-in-chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force were to define the organisational structure and composition of the theatre commands in September of last year, and it was expected that the creation of the joint theatre commands would take three to four years.
Based on their reports, their structure was to be finalized within a year. According to a senior government official, the challenge of balancing the needs of the three services will continue. ‘The current series of meetings between Army’s commanders-in-chief and their equivalents in the IAF and Navy is laying down the groundwork for restructuring the forces into the various identified theatres. The new CDS, once appointed, would continue from there,’ the official said.
The western theatre command is likely to have its headquarters in Jaipur, while the eastern theatre command is likely to be based in Kolkata or Lucknow. The air defence command will either be based in Jodhpur, Gandhinagar or Allahabad, and the maritime theatre likely in Karwar. Once the theater commands are formed, the operations branch from the existing commands will move to the theatre commands first. Subsequently, logistics and other departmental functions will be subsumed into theatre commands, erasing them from existence.
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