Mhow: Air Chief Marshal (ACM) A.P. Singh, the Indian Air Force (IAF) chief, Tuesday in a seminar, pitched for a Delhi-based joint planning and coordination centre, headed by the service chiefs and the defence staff chief, for leading coordinated and joint military operations, instead of rushing into theaterisation.
The military can jointly plan, coordinate, and execute, as showcased in Operation Sindoor, ACM Singh said, speaking at a ‘fireside chat’ at Ran Samvad, touted as India’s first tri-service, warfare-focused seminar.
Every country, including the United States and China, has models or structures of warfare depending on country-specific requirements, so it would not be prudent to copy and paste, the IAF chief further said.
ACM Singh’s comment assumes significance as a planned theaterisation drive turns out to be more complicated in practice than anticipated.
In a 17 June 2021 report, ThePrint was the first to state that, contrary to claims regarding implementation, theaterisation will be delayed. The theatre concept, under which India’s military was to be divided into different independent theatres—as in the US or China—has since then undergone several permutations and combinations.
ACM Singh also credited CDS Gen Anil Chauhan for the smooth coordination and execution of Operation Sindoor, saying he played an “very big role”. All four service chiefs were together, planning the operations, and they did not find any gaps in the structure of conducting operations, added ACM Singh.
“There are some minor issues that we found in the execution that are being sorted out. So, I feel, having joint planning and coordination at the apex level is what is required,” he said.
“If the directions are from there (joint planning and coordination centre), things will go out. We don’t really need another structure at the moment…. We can start with this, implement it, and see how it ends up. If we need any other structures, we can think about it.”
The IAF chief added that he did not think that moving to the theatre command concept of another country was a good idea.
“China has it this way…America has it this way…Everybody has a requirement. So, we need to think. What do we need here? And, we should not just come under any pressure and say we have to implement it now; somehow, we have to,” ACM Singh said.
He further said theatre commanders would be sitting apart from each other.
“You can’t have a theatre commander sitting somewhere now. Who does he talk to? Where does he get directions from? Yes, phones are available. But, it really doesn’t work out that way,” ACM Singh said.
“I personally feel that having a Joint Planning and coordination centre in Delhi is what is required. Keeping it under the chief of staff’s committee, so that it gets directed jointly, and thereafter, it is executed. That means centrally planned and executed,” ACM Singh said.
Agreeing that further deliberations were needed, ACM Singh added, “We will not take a hasty decision on this…. And my approach and suggestion have also been that let’s take a step-wise approach. Let’s not implement everything together in one go and shake up [things]. Let’s see how it benefits us.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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