Military needs to improve synergy, says officer who helmed tri-services

NEWDELHI:The existing structure for cross-service cooperation is weak and efforts for jointmanship in the military are proceeding slowly, resulting in duplication of efforts, wastage of resources and delay in decision making, said Lieutenant General Satish Dua, who was the senior-most military officer handling all triservice affairs until a month ago.

“Since the chairmanship of the Chiefs of Staff Committee keeps rotating, it is weak. Sometimes the three chiefs cannot take a decision as they disagree over issues,” said Dua, who retired as Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee on October 31 after holding the top post for two years.

Created 17 years ago, the Integrated Defence Staff is a singlepoint organisation for jointmanship that integrates policy, doctrine, war-fighting and military purchases. Jointmanship refers to a degree of co-ordination and integration in terms of strategy, capabilities and execution across the three services.

“The weak structure doesn’t lead to effective decision making. Differences are bound to be there as the chiefs tend to keep their service interests first,” Dua said in an interview to Hindustan Times.

Inter-service issues, lack of triservice structures and the reluctance of the three services to let go of their turfs are some of the biggest hurdles to achieving greater jointmanship, Dua said.

“We have made some progress in the recent years. Cyber, space and special operations divisions are to be set up. The commanderin-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command (a tri-service command) has been given more powers. But a lot more needs to be done. On a scale of 10, I would give jointmanship, as it exists today, a 4,” he said.

He said officers being groomed to occupy higher positions should be given incentives to serve in triservice organisations, a proposal that is being examined by the defence ministry.

“Today, people do not want to serve as instructors at the Defence Services Staff College (a tri-service institution).

Nobody wants to go to Andamans (the first and only tri-services or theatre command in the country). They would prefer manning a post in the military operations directorate, a more glamourous job. But if career-advancing incentives are given, things will change,” he said.

Lack of jointmanship is leading to duplication and even triplication of efforts and resources. This is only natural, given that the easiest way to cut costs is standardization and scale.

“We are a developing country. It’s criminal to waste money like that. Every service has its own air force. They have different workshops to repair the same cars in same cities.

The army and the IAF (Indian Air Force) fly helicopters of different sizes to serve the same troops in Siachen. We need to create new structures. There’s a pressing need to synergise and optimise,” Dua said.

A defence ministry spokesperson said integration among the armed forces has been a priority for the government.