Govt formulating joint military doctrines to enhance forces' coordination

India is in the process of formulating joint military doctrines in sync with its efforts to enhance synergy among the three services and other key wings of the defence establishment to effectively deal with future security challenges, officials said on Monday.

The defence ministry has already been working on an ambitious plan on theaterisation process to ensure jointness among the three services.

Various aspects relating to the joint doctrines were brainstormed at a conference on September 22.

"This historic, first such, conference was aimed to synergise and bridge gaps in understanding between headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS) and the three services in the formulation of doctrines, as also review the progress of joint doctrines being formulated," the defence ministry said.

It also helped in sharing best practices and ongoing initiatives on doctrinal issues, it said in a brief statement on Monday.

The 'joint doctrine review' conference was chaired by Air Marshal Jeetendra Mishra, the Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Doctrine Organisation and Training).

The conference spanned over two sessions, brainstorming the joint doctrine formulation process. It reviewed the ongoing as well as future joint and service doctrines on diverse subjects such as cyberspace, amphibious and space.

"The conference was successful and achieved its stated aim," the ministry said.

It was attended by subject matter experts from the Doctrine Development Agencies of HQ IDS and the three services as also members from reputed think tanks.

Officials said the government has been making forward movement in the theaterisation plan as well.

According to the theaterisation 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 three services have separate commands.

The theatre commands are being planned to integrate the capabilities of the three services and to ensure optimal utilisation of their resources.