India’s first joint fighting doctrine unveiled

Releasing the Doctrine today at the Unified Commanders Conference, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, ‘‘In the prevalent operational environment, defence services are required to provide a full spectrum security as well as response. The warfare today encompassed spheres such as political, economic, social, diplomatic, and many more.’’

Joint doctrinal war scenarios stretch from conventional warfare to low intensity conflicts of a protracted nature, from counter-insurgency to deterrent posturing.

The Defence Minister added, ‘‘Wars have become costlier and there is a shift to asymmetric warfare. The response therefore towards such myriad challenges has to be integrated, flexible, innovative and in real time.’’

Pulling up the example of the Andaman & Nicobar Command, which has come to be seen as an exemplifying team work of the three forces, Mukherjee called for setting tangible goals to ensure that the required pace of restructuring and transformation was maintained.

The appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), by most accounts, would provide the necessary nodal power to imbue the Joint Doctrine with the real bite, though the proposal still awaits ‘‘political consensus’’.

‘‘There is a need to evolve a road map towards furthering the process of joint commands to make resources available for modernisation,” he said. The Defence Ministry indicated that the document was intended to be dynamic and subject to regular review to keep pace with the evolving concepts and technology and ensure its contemporary relevance.