With the objective of fighting modern-day warfare, India will roll out two to five theatre commands by 2022 to take care of security challenges along the western (Pakistan) and northern (China) borders.
While Jammu & Kashmir will be a separate theatre, the western and eastern Navy commands will operate as one and known as peninsular command to guard the strategically important Indian Ocean, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat said here on Monday.
Stressing that his charter as CDS is clearly enunciated, he said the mandate is to achieve jointness and synergy between the three Services by undertaking these reforms.
Rawat said the theatre commands will be geographically defined and demarcated and a study will be conducted from March 31 onwards. The study will be submitted for scrutiny by the end of next year and hopefully the commands will roll out by 2020, said Rawat, adding the study groups will evaluate the options of number of commands which could vary from two to five. At present, the three Services have their own commands and operate in silos.
The proposed theatre commands will see assimilation of assets of three services to fight the war. The US and China have similar commands but the CDS said India need not follow those examples and instead have own models to meet our requirements.
Interacting with a group of journalists here, Rawat also said he favoured staggered procurement of weapons and equipment so as to take care of the needs of the Army, Navy and IAF.
Elaborating upon the procurement issue, he said the focus is on prioritisation given the Budget and he was for buying weapons in tranches. Giving an example, he said if the Navy said it needs 10 submarines, the IAF wants aircraft and the Army 1,000 tanks, one option is that only one service will benefit if we go for large numbers in one go. However, if procurement is prioritised, then all the services can procure limited number of weapons at regular intervals, thereby, maintaining operational readiness, Rawat said.
Asked about the IAF’s proposed acquisition of 114 aircraft, the CDS said a new approach of staggered acquisition was getting firmed up. Similarly, he favoured buying submarines instead of the third aircraft carrier.
Justifying his philosophy, Rawat said an aircraft carrier takes seven to ten years to build. Moreover, the second aircraft carrier INS Vikrant will be ready by next year and let the Navy evaluate its performance and then a call will be taken about the third carrier as mooted by the Service, he said.
On the proposed peninsular command to be formed by merging the Indian Navy’s eastern and western commands, he said it is likely to take shape by end of 2021. The tri-services command under a naval commander will have air assets as well as support of the Army, and it will take care of entire responsibility of maritime security challenge in the Indian Ocean Region.
“The security of Indian Ocean region has to be dealt with by one commander and he will not be required to get approval from Delhi for operational matters including movement of ships,” said Rawat. He said the proposed air defence command is likely to be rolled out by middle of next year and certain air assets like missiles of the Indian Army and the Navy will be part of it. He also said it the first priority right now and the IAF will be lead agency. A study group headed by the IAF Vice Chief on this issue will submit its report by April and the command will come into being within a year, Rawat said.
The CDS also said the Government plans to have a separate training and doctrinal command modelled on similar structure in the US, while a separate command will be set up to take care of logistical requirements of the three services. Similarly, the IAF is studying the feasibility of training fighter pilots of various type of aircraft at its Gwalior instead of training at different locations at present. Also efforts are to enhance the pilot-aircraft ratio by even deploying those now working in administration wing of the IAF, the CDS said. His department is also looking at a proposal for having a logistics command to supply common equipment used by all the three services.