 "Bharat Shakti")
The long-pending unified theatre commands will lay the foundation for catapulting India's armed forces into "the next orbit of military preparedness and war fighting", Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan has said, amid the government's push to speedily roll out what will be the biggest military reform India has ever seen.
CDS Gen Chauhan also called upon the Indian Army, Indian Air Force, and Indian Navy to create a joint culture as they move towards forming joint operational structures, said an official release by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Tuesday. Terming developing joint culture within the Indian armed forces as "Jointness 2.0", the CDS added that this was the way forward.
The CDS was speaking on 'Jointmanship: The Way Ahead' as part of the 22nd Major General Samir Sinha Memorial Lecture organised at USI of India in New Delhi.
CDS Gen Chauhan's statements come when the theaterisation of the Indian armed forces is gathering pace, with the incumbent Narendra Modi-led government reportedly setting a target for commencing the reorganisation process by the time the new government, which will be sworn in next month, completes one year.
Once rolled out, theaterisation will see the creation of unified theatre commands within the Indian armed forces, instead of the individual ones that exist at present.
CDS Gen Chauhan said that while "Jointness 1.0" was about better bonhomie and consensus among the three services, there was an impetus to move towards the next level of jointness -- "Jointness 2.0" -- since no major differences had emerged in the first phase.
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Acknowledging the distinct culture of all the three services, the CDS said that there was a need to create a fourth culture in the services. "Joint culture, though different from service-specific culture, needs to respect the uniqueness of each service. We must be able to distill the best of each service and incorporate the highest common factor, rather than settle for the least common denominator," said the CDS.
The CDS stressed that jointness and integration were pre-requisites for the creation of functional integrated theatre commands.
Explaining the significance of such commands, the CDS said, "The creation of such commands will separate the 'operational' functions from the raise-train-sustain (RTS) and other administrative functions, and will allow greater focus of the operational commander to matters of security."
The Bharatiya Janata Party has made a commitment to theaterisation in its election manifesto.
 "Bharat Shakti")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi witnesses display of India's defence prowess at Bharat Shakti at Pokhran, Rajasthan. Image credit: @SpokespersonMoD
Theatre commands will trigger further military reforms
However, the CDS said that theatre commands would not be an end state, instead they would be the beginning of the next set of military reforms.
The CDS explained that integrated theatre commands would lead to a number of reforms: moving from single to multi-domain operations; fusing space and cyber space into the traditional domains; digitisation of battlefield information and visualisation; net-centric and data-centric operations.
CDS Gen Chauhan is working on implementing the theaterisation plan and has held a series of deliberations with the top brass of the three services in the past few months to take the process forward.
Stressing that reforms in the Indian defence ecosystem were a necessity, the CDS highlighted that nation states across the world were facing a new set of challenges and that the current flux in the world order was forcing them to review their security strategies.
The rapid and unbridled march of technology is transforming the way future wars will be fought, he added.
Highlights from ‘Bharat Shakti’ in Pokhran. We will keep working towards making India self reliant in the defence sector. pic.twitter.com/Ui2SI6KhhI
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 13, 2024
Theaterisation plans gather pace
With the incumbent government reportedly directing the defence and security establishment that theaterisation roll-out will commence one year from the swearing-in of the new government next month, the armed forces are expected to come up with a structure for the reorganisation within the set time frame.
However, the government has also acknowledged that actual theaterisation could take more time. Still, it expects that jointness initiatives, like structures for joint training, administration, and logistics, will be rolled out by the end of 2024.
The government's focus is on integration first, instead of outright theaterisation.
On May 4, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also told the media that the theaterisation process was making progress, with consensus emerging among the three forces.
What is Indian military's theaterisation plan?
Once rolled out, the theatre commands will overhaul India's existing defence deployment structure by integrating the army, air force and navy into one architecture. This will ensure tri-services synergy and jointness.
Each of the theatre commands will look after the security challenges in a specified geographical territory under an operational commander.
While the final contours of the theaterisation process are not known yet, it could see the establishment of two integrated theatre commands to counter Pakistan and China, along with a third maritime theatre command.
An influential school of thought within the armed forces has been arguing for three such theatre commands, one with each service, for some time now.
At present, the 1.7-million-strong Indian armed forces have 17 individual commands. However, two tri-service commands -- the Andaman and Nicobar Command and the Strategic Forces Command -- are also operational.
In 2016, China reorganised its 2-million strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) into five theatre commands.
