While addressing at the Vivekanand International Foundation, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat said that integration and jointness among the three services are important for the country to face future security challenges.
General Rawat also dispelled apprehensions regarding the formation of theatre commands to increase synergy among the Army, Navy, and Air Force would lead to one service taking over the other two as he described such concerns as a “misnomer”. He also said, “Two years ago, the three-service chiefs gave in writing to the government that we want an integrated system to come in. That is how CDS came into being.”
He also said all the radar systems for the three services will be integrated to ensure optimum utilisation and they will operate under an overall air defence umbrella. According to the plan, the theatre commands will have units of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and all of those will work as a single entity, looking after security challenges in a specified geographical territory under an operational commander.
CDS said that the work is being done towards creating two to three integrated theatre commands (ITCs) over land, a maritime theatre command (MTC), and a national integrated air defence command (ADC), and as the system will mature, the command would flow from the CDS to the individual theatre commanders and the service headquarters would then be primarily responsible for “raise, train, and sustain”.
