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Wedged between two hostile neighbours, India cannot afford to slacken the pace of modernisation of its military forces. One of the key components of the defence sector reforms is the proposed creation of integrated theatre commands. They seek to synergise the capabilities of the three services—Army, Air Force and Navy—and optimally utilise their resources for wars and operations.

 

Despite being fully backed by the government, the idea still eludes consensus. There are certain stumbling blocks in the way of building consensus among the three services on integrated theatre commands.

 

A big challenge before the government and the defence top brass is to strike a balance between the formation of joint structures and the preservation of the unique identity and ethos of each of the three services.

 

The plan is to integrate the tri-services and their resources into specific theatre commands for deployment under a single, unified command structure. This military reform aims to overcome the fragmentation of the current command structure, allowing for faster and unified decision-making under a single commander for specific geographic areas.

 

Divergent viewpoints

 

However, differences persist over how to implement the plan. The Army and Navy are in favour of the theaterisation model but the Air Force has concerns over the division of its air assets and the nomenclature and leadership of the commands. There are also concerns about the reduction of the powers of the Chiefs of Staff.

 

These differences came to the fore during a tri-service seminar held at the Army War College in Madhya Pradesh’s Dr Ambedkar Nagar recently. Cautioning against hurrying through the plan, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh emphasised, instead, on creating a joint planning and coordination centre in Delhi under the Chiefs of Staff Committee to bolster jointness among the three services. However, Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi asserted that the Navy was fully committed to integrating its command and control, communications, and combat capabilities with the Army and Air Force to align with the theaterisation goal.

 

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Considering these divergent views, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan has a delicate balancing act on hand to adequately address any dissonance within the services. The Defence Ministry too needs to step in to clear the air and build consensus.

 

The need for putting in place integrated theatre commands (ITCs) was first highlighted by the Kargil Review Committee in 1999, which flagged the lack of coordination among the services as a significant weakness during the Kargil conflict.

 

The creation of the CDS post in 2000 and subsequently bringing the armed forces under the ambit of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) were the early steps towards the broad set of reforms that includes rolling out theatre commands.

 

Need of the hour

 

Once put in place, the ITCs would constitute the biggest reorganisation of the armed forces since Independence. They are the surest way of combining strengths and optimising the potential of the three services.

 

Theaterisation involves putting a specific number of personnel from the three services under a common commander for a unified military approach through rationalisation of manpower and resources. As per plan, each of the theatre commands will have units of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force working as a single entity looking after security challenges in a specified geographical territory under an operational commander. At present, these forces have separate commands.

 

Currently, the Indian military has 17 single-service commands across the country—the Army and Air Force have seven each, and the Navy has three commands. The Andaman and Nicobar command, based in Port Blair, is the sole tri-service command.

 

The inter-services competition, though desirable to a reasonable extent, should not be allowed to become the reason for hampering a key reform measure. There is a need for removing the impasse and adopting a more holistic approach. A public clash of ideas must be avoided at all costs.

 

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There is a need to develop a ‘joint culture’ for the forces so as to imbibe the best practices of the three services while respecting the uniqueness of each of them. Jointness and integration are regarded as the pillars on which rests the government’s initiative to make the armed forces ‘future ready’.

 

Challenges galore

 

Traditionally, armed forces have overlapping operational zones but divergent strategic cultures and priorities. Lack of a unified war-fighting doctrine complicates consensus on command structures.

 

The IAF has been reluctant to embrace the idea of theatre commands, fearing dilution of operational control and limited resources. The IAF operates with only 31 squadrons instead of the sanctioned 42, limiting flexibility in theatre allocations. The Navy's constrained budget too affects its role in maritime commands. 

 

With greater budgetary allocations and larger manpower, the Army potentially skewed command influence and resource distribution. Experts have also pointed out that India's military education system remains largely service-specific, lacking institutionalised cross-service training. 

 

It is also argued in some quarters that integrating personnel under a unified command structure raises concerns about career progression, rank equivalence, and command hierarchy, making the transition complex.

 

Build consensus

 

Hopefully, the frequent brainstorming sessions among the tri-service leadership will help in finalising a roadmap for seamless integration, taking into consideration the turf issues that are holding up the transition. It must be remembered that warfare in the 21st century is mainly about maximising efficiency and minimising wastage of resources.

 

Expeditiously building consensus on jointness and integration holds the key to early implementation of the theaterisation plan. This is vital for bolstering India’s combat preparedness and fortifying its borders against all kinds of military transgressions.

 

The broad mandate of the CDS includes bringing about “jointness” in “operations, logistics, transport, training, support services, communications, repairs, and maintenance of the three services.

 

There is no denying that the proposed defence sector reforms are in line with the changing nature of modern warfare. There is a strong argument that theatre commands will ensure integration among the three services, paving the way for them to fight future wars jointly, instead of individually without adequate coordination.

 

Modern wars have become increasingly multi-domain in nature and warrant better coordination among land, sea, and air assets, as well as newer platforms such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and high-precision strike weapons, and domains like cyber and space.

 

In the event of a future conflict involving drone and high-precision missile attacks combined with cyber-attacks and land wars, the services would benefit by coordinating their planning and integrating their assets under a single command and control structure.