India to get theatre commands for Pak, China borders: Rawat
REJIG ON ANVIL Says armed forces poised for biggest reorganisation with the creation of Air Defence Command
NEWDELHI: India will have theatre commands overseeing the country’s borders with China in the North/north-east; Pakistan in the North/west; and a peninsular command looking at the country’s eastern and western seaboards, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Bipin Rawat said in an interaction with reporters on Tuesday. While this will take three years, he added that the country’s armed forces are poised for the biggest reorganisation ever with the creation of the “Air Defence Command.”
“The Air Defence Command is low-hanging fruit,” General Rawat said, adding that “during the transition, the theatre commanders will be assigned to be under the service chief” so that the change doesn’t impact the battle capabilities of the forces.
This means that during the transition, the theatre commander will take orders from his service chief, who will take inputs from the other chiefs. The new structure that will emerge after the transition process is still not clear. “The process of transition will be deliberate and gradual,” General Rawat, India’s first CDS, said. Among the other new commands that are expected are a “Logistics Command” that will look into logistics of all three services in a holistic manner.
And with the creation of the peninsula command, the Navy Chief can disinvest himself from the closer Indian Ocean region and look at the bigger picture, the CDS said. “Our thought process is that let us go with the peninsula command. Currently there is East and West command in Navy over Indian Ocean,” he said. “If you look at the Navy Chief, these two commands are just one of his charters. Look at his charter; he is looking at the entire Indian Ocean region. He is looking from east coast of Africa to right down to Australia,” he said.
General Rawat was named CDS on December 31, 2019, almost two decades after the Group of Ministers formed to look into the Kargil Review Committee report recommended the creation of the post to promote jointmanship or synergy between the forces.
“Theatre commands are the need of the hour... We need theatre commands because no single force is capable of discerning and importantly countering growing threats alone. Importantly we have better utilize meagre resources. India strategic frontiers are expanding, it is time we look at the bigger picture and not be confined to silos. The threats from other countries need to understood and prepared for... Therefore in our report, we had suggested that from Defence forces we need to move to armed forces and from thereon to becoming an armed power,” Lieutenant General DB Shekatkar said. He chaired a high-level panel that recommended “measures to enhance combat capability and rebalance defence expenditure of the armed forces”. The report was submitted in December 2016.
“Air Defence command is a good first step. Air Defence needs to be integrated to avoid instances of friendly fire when you have Army, IAF using aerial platforms. Theatre commands will ultimately come in as per the mandate of the CDS,” said Lieutenant General Satish Dua, who has retired as the Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman Chief of Staff Committee.
Describing the reorganisation in detail, the CDS said that he has had initial discussions with the chiefs of the three services. “I have asked for suggestions from them,” he said. He added that India is following neither the US model, which has geographical theatre commands, nor the Chinese model, which are according to regions. “We will devise it according to our needs and terrain,” General Rawat said. Describing the Air Defence Command, the CDS said that the Indian Air Force is responsible for the management of the Indian air space. “While air assets will be integrated” and put in the Air Defence Command, those with very specific duties such as fighters with the Indian Navy or air elements with the Strike Corps of the Indian Army will continue to be with the respective forces, he explained. Integrating the logistics units of all three services “has great potential” in increasing “efficiency”, and cutting costs through “common contract management”, the CDS said.
Commenting on “jointness” between three services, General Rawat said, “We are armed forces of the Union (of India) and the time has come to genuinely behave like one.” He added that medical and training facilities could be integrated. It is important to better understand the “capabilities” available with the other forces, he said. “I came to know about the capabilities of the Us-made long-range surveillance aircraft P8i during the Doklam crisis.” Indian and Chinese troops were deployed eyeball to eyeball at the Doklam plateau in Bhutan for 73 days in 2017. The naval aircraft gathered crucial data that allowed better decisionmaking, the CDS said.
Significantly, days after the Union government presented the Union budget for the fiscal year 2020-21, the CDS expressed concern about the burgeoning pension budget. “It is Rs 1.33 lakh crore next fiscal as against Rs 1.1 lakh crore this year,” the CDS said and wondered whether this is “feasible” to sustain. Pension budgets have soared after the government implemented the One-rank- One Pension (OROP) scheme for the military. OROP was a long-standing demand of the armed forces. The budget allocated to forces was adequate, the CDS said. “Management of budget is critical. Budget is more a management issue than an issue of (adequate) funds.”