While the Narendra Modi government is yet to appoint the next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), the Indian military’s plans to transition into integrated theatre commands are in progress, with at least two meetings held since January this year to discuss their structure and other facets of their operations, News18 has learnt.
The latest of these took place in Lucknow last week and was attended by at least three Army commanders and one commander-in-chief each from the Navy and the Indian Air Force (IAF). Prior to that, in January, another discussion between top officers of the three services had taken place in Jaipur.
As per government sources, some internal deliberations on theaterisation had also taken place within the Army in the last week of January. Aside from these meetings, the services are also carrying out internal discussions to fine-tune the modalities.
In the two major tri-service discussions held at the Army’s southwestern command in Jaipur and central command in Lucknow, aspects of employment of theatres in different operational scenarios were discussed, the sources said.
The sources told News18 that the IAF is examining its options and feasibility of employing its resources permanently in different theatres, even as the three services continue fleshing out the finer details of the theaterisation process and reaching a consensus on them.
