In a booklet on its nine years in government, the BJP has hailed its deeply flawed Agnipath scheme as an achievement but surprisingly excluded the path-breaking Chief of Defence Staff and associated defence reforms flowing from it. Last week, CDS Gen Anil Chauhan, speaking at a DRDO event in New Delhi highlighted jointness and integration as a prelude to theaterisation. Speculation has grown that the first Integrated Theatre Command is likely to come up shortly, less than one year after Gen Chauhan took over as CDS and less than four years after late CDS Gen Bipin Rawat was chosen to execute the monumental reforms that were interrupted by his death.
To recall, December 24, 2019, the PIB order tasked CDS “to bring about jointness in operations, logistics, training… of the three services within three years.” It also mandated the new Department of Military Affairs with “restructuring military commands for optimum utilization of resources through jointness in operations including the establishment of joint theatre commands.” When I met Gen Rawat a week before his death, he told me that his interpretation was to also build theatre commands within three years. He had gone about his mission in a rather abrasive manner ruffling the feathers of the Indian Air Force (IAF) by comparing it to an extension of artillery. Gen Chauhan has addressed the same task in a more gentle and patient fashion than his predecessor, speaking rather economically about integration and joint commands publicly. Most of all, he has acted in a consultative mode, reportedly accommodating the IAF which has been historically opposed to the idea of CDS and integration.
Many administrative steps are being gradually taken towards jointness like pairing different Service Acts, promotions policies and cross-postings. In addition, social integration has also revved up by opening up exclusive single-service facilities of education, sport, and clubs for all tri-service members. The foundation for such jointness is laid at NDA Kharakvasla, progressively enhancing to add Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and National Defence College, New Delhi. But these are not enough. Deeper integration has to take place within the Ministry of Defence and Service Headquarters where individual Service Chiefs will soon be reduced to responsibility for morale, training and logistics with operations hived off. The British and American models of jointness are a good mirror but Indian bureaucrats will be loath to shed the power they exercise. I watched this reluctance first-hand during my term with the Defence Planning Staff (initial version of the current Integrated Defence Staff) in the mid-1980s.
The Rawat model of theaterisation was revealed by him in September 2021 while speaking at India International Centre, New Delhi. It consisted of country and domain-specific Integrated Theatre Commands – against Pakistan, the Western ITC and China, Northern ITC, a maritime command for the Indian Ocean and an islands command (already existing) the Andamans and Nicobar ITC. He spoke about a fifth Command for Indian airspace to be followed by Cyberspace Command. Other variations he included were Air Defence Command and keeping intact, the existing Northern Army Command, responsible for Ladakh and PoK as an interim measure. A former Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Harwant Singh, who had made the first presentation on theaterisation to then former MoS for Defence, Arun Singh in 2001, had suggested three sea-based Integrated Commands – one each for Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (which came up in 2002), where now the Great Nicobar port is being developed as its key asset with an investment of Rs 72,000 crore. He recognised the salience of sea power which has not been taken to its depth.
Recently, Gen Chauhan reportedly said, “99 percent of work has been done on theaterisation”. The Chauhan plan is more or less identical to other models and includes two land-based country-specific and two sea-based domain-specific ITCs, including the existing Andaman and Nicobar Command. Additional joint commands in the pipeline are logistics, training, cyber and space, missiles and intelligence. It is proposed that the three new ITCs will be led by four-star rank officers who will retire at 61 years of age. Other additional joint commands will be led by three-star rank officers. The first ITC is likely to come up at Jaipur. This will be followed or accompanied by the merger of Eastern and Naval commands into the maritime command to include the existing Andaman and Nicobar Islands command.
Other issues that require Gen Chauhan’s attention are Agnipath, military equipment acquisition policy, and defence budget, especially with respect to catch-up with China, which is strikingly far ahead in defence technology and force multipliers. As for the long-term equipment plan, the CDS, who now prioritises inter-service weapons requirements instead of the defence secretary, needs state-of-the-art weapons and their capability evaluation system before bunching of the queue starts at Defence Acquisition Council. US Defence Secretary Robert McNamara would invest time and resources in evaluating military hardware. The existing selection and evaluation of weapons is highly ad hoc.
CDS has become synonymous with theaterisation but Gen Chauhan must move beyond it, seeking an enhanced defence modernization budget to catch up with China. He has deftly steered the jointness project to arrive at a consensus among the services about jointness and Integrated Theatre Commands, especially the IAF, given its depleting resources. Still, how the IAF combat squadrons will be allocated to ITCs is a known unknown.
Ashok K Mehta is a retired Lt General of the Gorkha Regiment, Indian Army & Columnist. He writes and speaks extensively on defence and strategic affairs. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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