New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has set a time frame of one year from the swearing-in of the new government next month for rolling out theaterisation, ThePrint has learnt.
Sources in the defence and security establishment told ThePrint that the government is very clear that it wants theaterisation rolled out and expects the armed forces to come up with a structure within the set time frame.
Theaterisation will see unified or theatre commands rather than individual ones and will be the biggest military reform the country has ever seen.
As first reported by ThePrint in July last year, the plan is to set up two integrated theatre commands to take on Pakistan and China, with the first to come up opposite western borders as well as a maritime theatre command.
Sources said that the Modi government is carrying on with its business-as-usual approach and has already set its priorities for the new term.
“The BJP has made a commitment to theaterisation in its election manifesto. The Chief of Defence Staff along with the Service chiefs and relevant officials are already working on more jointness, integration and eventual theaterisation,” a source told ThePrint.
A second source said that while eventual theaterisation will take time, the government expects to roll out structured jointness initiatives by the end of this year. This will include structures for joint training, administration initiatives, and logistics.
However, no structures or hierarchy of the new system has been finalised yet. This is because the focus right now is on integration and not theatre, the sources said, adding that it was a “bottom-up” and not “a top-down” approach.
According to ThePrint’s report last July, Jaipur, home to the Army’s South Western Command (SWC), will be the headquarters for the theatre command that will look after Pakistan.
The other theatre command to take care of the borders with China will come up in Lucknow, which currently is the headquarters of the Central Command. Both the South West and the Central commands had carried out a detailed study on the theatre command structure earlier.
Similarly, ThePrint had reported that the maritime theatre command to look after India’s maritime and coastal interests will come up in Karnataka’s Karwar, which is close to Goa. However, other cities are also under deliberation.
According to sources, while the maritime command will be headed by a Naval officer, the other two will see rotational appointments from the Army and the Air Force.
Sources had also pointed out that the first integrated theatre command in Jaipur will be a test bed and will take into account the shortcomings, fine-tuning needed, and the challenges that come about.
If the plan is finalised, the Army’s South Western, Western, and Southern Commands and elements from the Northern Command will come under the Jaipur-based theatre command, apart from the IAF’s Western and South Western Air Commands and elements from the Central and Southern Commands.
Though former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat had formulated a plan, it was stuck because of a lack of agreement on such a significant change.
While it was claimed in February 2020 that the theatre commands would be ready in three years, ThePrint reported in 2021 that it could be delayed due to strong differences among the armed forces over the basic structure of the commands.
However, as reported in June last year, after months of dithering, multiple plans, and objections, the Army, Navy, and Indian Air Force (IAF) are “99 percent” on board the broad contours of the theatre commands being given shape by Gen Chauhan.
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Focussed and not slow approach
Sources pointed out that multiple discussions are ongoing at various levels.
On May 9 and 10, the armed forces held a conference titled ‘Parivartan Chintan-II’, chaired by CDS General Anil Chauhan, to review the progress made in various domains and ideate on the necessary reforms to achieve the desired end state through integration.
During the review, Gen Chauhan stressed the need for expediting the jointness process to create a “multi-domain response capable Indian armed forces”.
While the nearly 17-lakh-strong Indian armed forces currently have 17 individual commands, there are two tri-service commands — the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) and the Strategic Forces Command which looks after nuclear assets.
The original idea was to cut down these different service commands to five theatres and functional commands — the Northern Land Theatre (Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Central sector), the Western Land Theatre (Pakistan centric), the Eastern Land Theatre, the Maritime Theatre Command and the Air Defence Command.
It is expected that the final contours of the theatre command structure will be formalised over the next few months and then go through a formal approval process.
While eventually, the CDS will be the operational commander, he is unlikely to get any such role until the theaterisation is in place.
According to the original plan, CDS will also have a Vice-CDS. This was not meant to be a new post but a re-designation of the Chief of the Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) as Vice CDS.
However, the orders for this were never issued. Gen Rawat had in his multiple off-record interactions voiced the need for CISC to be re-designated as Vice CDS and also for the secretary of the Department of Military Affairs to be a separate position reporting to the CDS.
Currently, Gen Chauhan holds both positions.
In the military hierarchy, a four-star position like that of the CDS and service chiefs is higher than the secretary rank in the government of India. Many in the military frowned at the idea of the CDS being also given a secretary-rank position.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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