Towards integrated commands: It's too late to turn around

One of the military's worst-kept secrets is that the air force opposes setting up joint theatre commands. The military, however, has walked a long way down the road and the air force must realise that

With the appointment last week of Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan (Retired) as chief of defence staff (CDS), the attention of the defence ministry and the military should focus again on the much-delayed task of setting up joint theatre commands, in which elements of all three services — the army, navy and air force — work in an integrated manner to maximise the military’s combat power. This would involve restructuring India’s single-service commands, merging 17 army, navy and air force commands into five-six tri-service commands. While a CDS has been appointed to oversee this process, the creation of tri-service theatre commands,