Editorial 1: Plan for theatre commands
Context:
Recently held tri-service seminar at the Army war College in Madhya Pradesh has highlighted the differences among the Air Force, Army and Navy over the structure of theatre commands. It is one of the major defense reforms initiated by government to increase efficiency and coordination of the three services during any conflict.
Theaterisation of the defense forces:
- It refers to the planned integration of the Army, Navy, Air force and their resources into a ‘theatre commands’. They will be kept under single unified command.
- Each theatre command will be assigned a specific geographical location and all resources of three services will be combined for the operational role.
- Currently, Army, and Air force have seven commands each, and the Navy has three commands. There are two tri-service commands-the Andaman and Nicobar Command and the Strategic Forces Command (SFC), which manages nuclear arsenal.
- There is also Headquarters Integrated Defense Staff (HQIDS) created during Kargil for the joint management of defense staff at higher levels.
- Idea of theatre commands was first highlighted in the Independence Day speech of PM Modi in 2019 where he emphasized that entire military of the country must work together without the fragmentation of its prowess.
Reasons for creating theatre commands:
- They are created to tackle the changing nature of modern warfare. Many advanced militaries have already created theatre commands.
- These commands are created to ensure cooperation among three services, helping them fight wars jointly.
- Modern wars will be multi-domain in nature. This increases the importance coordination between land, sea, and air assets, as well as newer platforms such as UAVs and high- precision strike weapons.
- Future conflicts involving drones and high-precision missile attacks, combined with cyber war and land wars, will require all the services coordinating their planning and integrating their assets under a single command and control system.
- All these services are already taking steps to increase their jointness such as cross-postings among themselves, creating joint logistics nodes, and jointness in procurement, training, and staffing through joint planning and integration of their requirements.
- Government created the post of Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), who was a four-star general, to head the Department of Military Affairs under Defense Ministry as it secretary. CDS was entrusted with responsibility to promote jointness in procurement, training and staffing of the services through joint planning and integration of their requirements.
- CDS was expected to facilitate the restructuring of military commands for optimal utilization of resources by bringing about jointnesss in operations including through establishment of theatre commands.
Steps taken to create theatre commands:
- First CDS was planning to create four theatre commands- an air defense command, a maritime theatre command and two land based theatre commands, each one on western and eastern sectors.
- Since then the concept has undergone significant changes. The new plan proposed adversary-based joint theatre commands instead of four-defined theatre commands. This may involve carving out from existing 17 service-specific commands, integrated theatre commands for northern and eastern borders with china, another for the western borders with Pakistan, and a third maritime commands to tackle threats in maritime domain.
- Plans are drawn on the structure of theatre commands, the location of their headquarters, their operational areas, the lead service under which each theatre command will operate, and whether the Andaman and Nicobar Command and the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) will be subsumed into the existing commands.
Challenges with the theatre commands:
- Creating theatre commands entails dismantling the existing structure of service-specific commands under three services, which have been functioning for decades.
- This has created many challenges. Air force expressed that it would lead to division of its already scarce combat assets. IAF fear that it may reduce its role to just the support arm of the army.
- Theatre commands should be future ready in dealing with emerging forms of warfare in the space and cyber domains. They should not increase the decision making chain from the existing levels.
- There are views that we must take steps to increase the jointness of three services, instead of imitating the countries like US in rolling out theatre commands.
Way forward:
Modern era warfare involves simultaneously launching attacks in multiple domains. Theatre commands must be able to counter these multi-domain attacks. Presently there is also the threat of multi-stage joint war from China, Pakistan. Theatre commands must be formed to tackle these challenges. But, the concerns of all the three services should also be taken into consideration; Theatre commands must be formed suitable to our domestic security concerns instead of blindly imitating advanced militaries.