Roadmap for theatre commands likely by mid-2022

New Delhi, November 7

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India is likely to firm up by the middle of next year a roadmap for rolling out the ambitious theatre commands that are expected to ensure optimum utilisation of the military resources and enhance the country’s war-fighting capability, people familiar with the developments said on Sunday.

The actual operationalisation of the theatre commands may take two to three years, they said. According to the plan, each of the theatre commands will have units of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force and all of them will work as a single entity looking after security challenges in a specified geographical territory under an operational commander.

At present, the Army, Navy and the Air Force have separate commands. Initially, a plan was firmed up for the creation of an Air Defence Command and Maritime Theatre Command. The theatre commands are being planned to integrate the capabilities of the three services and to ensure optimal utilisation of their resources.

Recently, the department of military affairs asked the three services to complete their studies on the proposed theatre commands by April so that the plan to create the new structures could be expedited, the people cited above said. Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat has been working on the theaterisation model under which new integrated commands are being envisaged. — PTI