Lucknow: Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday asked the top commanders of the armed forces to develop a joint military vision, prepare for the unexpected and develop capabilities in space and electronic warfare.
At the first Joint Commanders' Conference in Lucknow, Singh emphasized the importance of developing a "joint military vision" and a "coherent, swift and proportionate" response to provocations, realigning forces to prepare for all kinds of challenges in future warfare. Referring to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts and the current situation in Bangladesh, he asked the commanders to analyze these episodes, predict future problems facing India and be ready for the "unexpected".
Chief of Defense Staff General Anil Chauhan, along with senior officials including Indian Army, Navy and Air Force Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs, discussed the dramatization in the context of national security and future capability enhancement, a Defense Ministry spokesperson said.
Strength of Commands and other GOCs. Officials, however, did not elaborate on the nature of the discussions to form such commands, which, if materialised, would be the country's biggest military reform. India currently has 19 military commands, of which 17 are distributed among the Indian Army (7), Indian Navy (3) and IAF (7). The remaining two are the tri-service Andaman and Nicobar Command and the Strategic Forces Command under the Integrated Defense Staff.
For better military planning, the Center wants to reduce the number of individual commands and establish integrated theater commands with elements of the Army, Air Force and Navy in each command depending on the nature of the enemy the theaters face. The board plans to create two theater commands for the Pakistan and China fronts. Each command has elements of the Air Force.
There may be joint commands for training and logistics. However, many missing pieces need to be fitted before the approval of the Union Cabinet. Opposition from within the IAF about losing the maximum had to be overcome. Another contentious issue is the commander-in-chief ranks of theater commands, as the current proposal is to make them four-star officers like the three service chiefs and the CDS.
Current General Chauhan said that integration is a stepwise process starting with cross-service cooperation, leading to a 'joint culture' and finally achieving integration of forces to conduct joint operations. Besides space and e-warfare, Singh also asked commanders to develop capabilities in artificial intelligence, robotics and data tools, as these technologies can determine the course of a war to a large extent.
India on Friday successfully test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile Agni-4 from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur on the Odisha coast, defense sources said. This points to what Rajnath Singh said earlier. This is interpreted as a warning to India's surrounding countries. This is the answer to the new approaches of countries including Bangladesh, which will give a lot of work.
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