Sindoor’s lessons will find place in theatre plan: CDS

The lessons learnt from Operation Sindoor, the four-day military confrontation with Pakistan in May, are being incorporated into the theaterisation model currently under consideration, with specific focus on the role of service chiefs during operations, chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan said on Tuesday.

- Rahul Singh

CDS General Anil Chauhan

Almost 90% work on the proposed creation of theatre commands has been done, he said.

Also, chief of the air staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said that the Indian military may need another joint structure but it cannot adopt a model that exists somewhere else and say that it will fit, adding that jointness and integration were on full display during Sindoor and there was need for a formalised structure for synergised operations.

"In the earlier model, we were saying force generation and force application will be different and a theatre commander will be responsible for force application, and a service chief only for force generation...and we gave him the responsibility of only 'raise, train and sustain' forces," Chauhan said at Bharat Shakti's India Defence Conclave.

However, during Operation Sindoor, he said, it came to the fore that the service chiefs also had a major role not only as part of the chiefs of staff committee (COSC) but also directly.

"So we can't deny this role (of chiefs) in the Indian context, at least for some more time. We need to rework that thing out... the role of COSC, that is one big lesson. The second big lesson is how we interact with the higher leadership, the higher defence organisation....and strategic decision making. Now we have a lot of experience of Uri, Balakot, Sindoor, Galwan and Doklam. We need to amalgamate that particular experience and come to an organisational structure which will be for all seasons," the CDS said.