Contours of joint theatre commands ready, await Govt nod before tweaks

The theaterisation plans seek to integrate the Army, Navy and Indian Air Force and their resources into specific theatre commands.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, COAS General Manoj Pande, Admiral R Hari Kumar, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari during an interaction with the first batch of Agniveers of the three Services via video conferencing, in New Delhi on Monday.

An official said members of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) are also likely to be part of the defence committee that will oversee the work of theatre commanders.

The COSC comprises the three service chiefs and the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and takes important decisions related to matters of higher defence.

“As per current plans, the structural changes, owing to the theaterisation plans, are also likely to involve appointment of a Vice CDS and a Deputy CDS,” the official said, adding that they would oversee the verticals of operations, intelligence and planning, training, procurements and other Defence-related aspects.

Earlier discussions involved keeping the roles of raise, train and sustain for the service chiefs while entrusting operations to the theatre commanders. But, according to a second official, it is currently being discussed that the service chiefs will likely retain some operational roles.

The official said that while the basic structure of the theatre commands is nearly final, certain matters related to human resource matters are yet to be decided.

The theaterisation plans, officials said, also entail overall transformation and better integration of the three service headquarters.

As reported by The Indian Express in January this year, three theatre commands will be set up first — one facing Pakistan, another opposite China, and a maritime theatre command to tackle maritime threats outside the coastal borders of the country. These theatre commands are likely to be located in Jaipur, Lucknow and Karwar, respectively.

An official said that existing tri-service agencies such as cyber, space and the special operations division — to gradually upgrade to commands — might be integrated as a fourth theatre command in the future. But this plan is still at a discussion stage.

Limited cross-postings between the Army, Navy and IAF have already been implemented to promote jointness. “Restructuring of the headquarters and the subsequent postings will take place after the final approval from the government,” the official said.

Currently, the Army and the IAF have seven commands each, while the Navy has three. In addition, there are two tri-service commands — the Andaman and Nicobar Command and the Strategic Forces Command (SFC), apart from the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQIDS).

One regular command of each of the three services is likely to be upgraded to a theatre command. The current discussions are to subsume the Andaman and Nicobar Command into the maritime theatre command and bring the HQIDS under the CDS.

The SFC will continue to operate independently.

All other commands will continue to oversee the respective operational theatres and there will be focus on enhancing jointness among the three services in areas such as intelligence, logistics, training, infrastructure among others.

Considered a major military reform, creation of theatre commands and their structure has been under discussions for three years now.

CDS General Anil Chauhan is spearheading the theaterisation plans. Multiple deliberations, studies and table top exercises have been carried out by the three services to examine employment of theatres in different operational scenarios.

It is not yet clear which service will lead which theatre command. Earlier theaterisation plans, which had envisioned creation of an air defence command, had met with objections from the IAF which said the creation of theatre commands would divide its fighting assets.