CDS General Bipin Rawat reveals shape of India's 'joint theatre commands'

The CDS said the military was also looking at creating a single theatre command for managing the threat from China

For the first time, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat publicly des­cribed the Indian military’s deliberations on reorganising itself into “integrated theatre commands”. These are warfighting entities, containing army, navy and air force components, that would fight jointly to focus and synergise the combat power of all three services.

In what would be the boldest move since Independence, Rawat said the 17 single-service commands that currently exist would be combined into just four geographical commands, each with elements from all three services.

The first joint theatre command would be responsible for the border against Pakistan in what the military refers to