CDS Gen Anil Chauhan to submit formal proposal on Integrated Theatre Commands to defence minister soon

New Delhi: The armed forces have concluded their discussions on the formation of Integrated Theatre Commands and a formal proposal may be submitted to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh within a week, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said on Thursday.

Participating in a fire-side chat at Ran Samwad, an annual military conference, in Bengaluru, Gen Chauhan said all discussions on Exercise Tiranga (the name for deliberations and discussions on establishing these commands between the CDS and the three service chiefs over three years) have concluded and the proposal might be submitted within the next one week.

He said though some differences still exist, the final plan would now be presented to the defence minister and then to the Cabinet Committee on Security before operationalising the long-awaited Integrated Theatre Commands.

Earlier in the day, Air Marshal Asutosh Dixit, Chief of Integrated Defence Service said, “Our move towards joint structures and theatre commands — with planning now reported to be more than 90% complete.” He, however, didn’t disclose further details.

Gen Chauhan and his predecessor Gen Bipin Rawat, were tasked by the government to create Integrated Theatre Commands while abolishing 17 individual commands shared between the Army (7), Air Force (7) and Navy (3).

The aim is to improve operational efficiency and better resource management by forming three integrated theatre commands to look after Western border (for tackling threats from Pakistan), Northern border (China) and the Maritime domain (Sea threats).

To realise what is considered the biggest reform in India’s higher defence, Gen Chauhan in the last three years carried out a series of consultations to iron out the differences between the Services and take all of them on-board.

“Structures alone do not guarantee synergy. Cultural integration is what makes structure come alive. Jointness must evolve from mere coordination to genuine unity of effort. That requires transparency in information-sharing, clarity of authority, and — most fundamentally — mutual trust,” said Air Marshal Dixit.

In the initial structure put forward by Gen Rawat, the Indian Air Force was not given the command of any of the theatres. It was proposed that the Army would head two land-focussed commands while the Navy was the obvious choice for the maritime one. This was not acceptable to the IAF.

Things, however, changed rapidly after Operation Sindoor in which the IAF played a critical role. Air Marshal Dixit said air power occupies a distinctive position in multi-domain operations because of the speed, flexibility, reach, and precision.

Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi and Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi also addressed the conference that focuses on multi-domain operations.