Integrated theatre commands

Why in news?

• Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat held a meeting with the Vice Chiefs of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force in the backdrop of concerns about the proposed model of the integrated theatre commands — both within the Services and outside, as it involves paramilitary forces as well.

What are integrated theatre commands?

• In the simplest words, it is a unified command under which all the resources of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force are pooled, depending on the threat perception.
• The commands could be geographical — like looking at a border with a particular country — or thematic, like a command for all maritime threats.
•  Several nations in the world have theatre commands, including the United States and China.
• The idea of creating an integrated tri-Services command in India is not new — it had been recommended at various levels after the Kargil conflict.

What is the proposal under discussion?

• A model with four to five integrated tri-Services theatre commands is under discussion, with each command headed by a three-star officer.
• This officer, the theatre commander, will report to the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), which, as the name suggests, includes the three Service chiefs, and is headed by the CDS as its permanent chairman.
• This brings in a major change — the Service chiefs currently have all the operational control over their forces; operational powers will now move to the COSC.
• Each of these commands will have the needed assets from all the three forces.
• Operational control over all of those assets, regardless of the force, will lie with the commander of that theatre.

The proposed commands:

• Maritime Theatre Command, which will take care of all the maritime security needs of the country on both the eastern and the western seaboards, and will include air strike assets and amphibian forces of the Army.
• An Air Defence Command, which will be mandated with air defence across the country and beyond. The fighter jets will have reconnaissance and surveillance assets as well.
• Two or three land-based commands are proposed.
• Apart from these theatre commands, there will likely be two functional tri-Services commands as well.
• There will be a Logistics Command, which will have the logistics of all the Services under one person.
• Second will be a Training and Doctrine Command, so that all Services work under a common doctrine and have some basic common training.

How many commands are there now?

• As of now, the three forces have 17 commands between them.
• The Army has seven commands: Northern, Eastern, Southern, Western, Central, Southwestern and Army Training Command (ARTRAC).
• The Air Force has seven as well: Western, Eastern, Southern, Southwestern, Central, Training, and Maintenance commands.
• The Navy has three: Western, Eastern and Southern, of which Southern is largely about training.
• Even if these commands operate in the same region, they are not co-located, and their areas of operational responsibility are not necessarily the same.
• There are two existing tri-Service commands as well — the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), which is headed by rotation by officers from the three Services, and the Strategic Force Command, which is responsible for India’s nuclear assets.

Prelims Question

Consider the following statements regarding proposed integrated theatre commands of India:
1.It is a unified command under which all the resources of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force are pooled.
2.If implemented, India will be the first in the world to created integrated theatre commands.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to the Prelims Question