Theatre commands may take another yr to be reality

The creation of theatre commands for the armed forces is expected to take some more time, while an actual implementation on the ground could take even longer, perhaps several months.

The geographical contours of the commands – also called joint commands – and the concept has already been agreed upon by the Army, Navy and the IAF. A blueprint on the operational framework was shared with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday at the Joint Commanders’ Conference at the Army’s Central Command headquarters in Lucknow.

Sources said the actual implementation, integration and allocation of units under a theatre command could an year or two. An announcement by the government will be done once a proposal is made before the Cabinet Committee on Security that is chaired by PM Narendra Modi.

A ‘final draft’ of the proposal is being readied. It will define how the theatre commander will function and what the chain of command will be while deploying assets and manpower. The details of integrating the forces and functionality is partly borrowed from the only existing tri-services command at Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

So far, the proposed formula entails having the entire India-China frontier from Ladakh to the easternmost extreme of Arunachal Pradesh under a single commander having headquarters at Lucknow. The entire India-Pakistan frontier — with the exception of India-Pak boundary in Jammu and Kashmir — would be under a commander having headquarters at Jaipur; the Maritime Command that would control all sea going assets like warships submarines would be headquartered at Thiruvananthapuram. The initial plan was to have this headquartered at Karwar in northern Karnataka.

Biggest military reforms

The creation of joint commands is one of the biggest military reforms in the country. It envisages placing all war-fighting assets, including manpower, weapons and machinery, under a single commander responsible for a defined geographical area.