Lt Gen Amit Sharma, a veteran armoured corps officer, will take over as chief of the Strategic Forces Command, which looks after the nuclear arsenal of the country.
The Army officer will replace Vice Admiral SPS Cheema as the head of the tri-services command as the Naval officer has moved to the Kochi to head Navy's Southern Command there, Army officials said.
Sharma (58) was the Chief of Staff of the Japiur-based South Western Command of the Army and had headed the force's elite 21 Strike Corps.
The responsibility of the Strategic Forces Command is to operationalise the directives of the Nuclear Command Authority (NCA).
The Command has the sole responsibility of initiating the process of delivering nuclear weapons and warheads after acquiring explicit approval from the NCA.
