The Defence Ministry will set up three new agencies for cyber warfare, space and special forces operations, nearly five years after it first announced the plans to create them.
Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra told the Unified Commander’s Conference about the plans to set up the three agencies.
In 2012, the Chiefs of Staff Committee recommended creation of the agencies in the three areas due to their increased relevance in modern warfare.
The defence ministry later decided to create a Defence Cyber Agency, a Defence Space Agency and the Special Operations Division (SOD) as an interim arrangement till the full-fledged commands come up. This may take several years and will depend on fund availability.
There was an internal agreement to put a navy officer as the head of the cyber warfare agency, an air force commander at the helm of space agency and an army in-charge of the special forces division. The heads of the agencies will be three-star ranked officers.
India’s new military doctrine underscores the need to prepare the defence forces for the “emerging triad” of space, cyberspace and special operations for future combat.
Published 16 July 2017, 20:20 IST