DISAGREEING WITH JOINTNESS

PROGRESS ON THE RESTRUCTURING OF THE ARMED FORCES INTO THEATRE COMMANDS IS NEARLY AT A STANDSTILL. THE IAF'S STEADFAST OPPOSITION TO IT REMAINS, ALONG WITH CRITICISM FROM EXPERTS

- Pradip R. Sagar

Most of the 20th century's conflicts were fought with land, naval and air forces working as separate units, though the successful prosecution of a war often saw close coordination between the three. In the past decades, military strategy has evolved to dictate an even closer harmony, to the creation of joint responsibility and representation of all military arms over a geographic area, or theatre, with specific roles. The objective is to achieve an integration of military resources so as to maximise combat capability. Thus a theatre command' would have units from the army, navy and air force, and operate under a common commander from any of the three services. Logistics, training, and even support services would all have to be woven into a unit to bring jointness in operations. This, in a nutshell, is the doctrine of theatrisation. Leading militaries, like those of the United States, Russia and China, operate under this system. The proposal to set up unified commands for the Indian military was first proposed after the Kargil War in 1999 when coordination between the Indian army, navy, and air force was found to be lacking. To bring about greater synergy, the Integrated Defence Staff was set up in 2001 but failed in its purpose. Finally, the Narendra Modi government decided to go ahead with the theatrisation plan and appointed former army chief Gen. Bipin Rawat in December 2019 as the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) to undertake the mammoth exercise to reform and reorganise one of the world's biggest armed forces into theatre commands.