Army, Navy take giant step towards India's biggest defence reform

Aimed at making an ambitious initiative a success, the Army and Navy have completed their studies on theaterisation plan to be rolled out while the Air Force said definite progress has been made in the process. 

"The independent studies by the Indian Army and Indian Navy have been completed," sources in the defence and security establishment said. 

Speaking at an event a day ago, Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari stated, "There are a few issues which are being discussed and definite progress has been made in this aspect."

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The Department of Military Affairs, when headed by late Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, had asked three services to conduct independent studies on theater commands' organisation and structures for their rolling out. 

The Indian Air Force had misgivings over the allocation of its platforms and assets. The IAF also highlighted issues like the depleting strength of its combat squadrons. The IAF operates with just about 30 squadrons against a sanctioned 42. 

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As far as formulation of joint structures is concerned, ACM Chaudhari had also stated that the three services are on the "same page".

"The Indian Air Force remains fully committed to integration that brings about transformation and enhancement of the comprehensive national combat power," the IAF chief had said.

Gen Rawat was tasked with the implementation of the country's biggest defence reform, aimed at ensuring better utilisation of the resources of the armed forces. The process got delayed due to the untimely demise of Gen Rawat in a chopper crash in December last year in Tamil Nadu. 

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As per the plan laid out by Gen Rawat, presentations were to be held in the months of February, March and April while the final presentation had to be done in May.

The commands, which carried out the studies, include South Western Command and Central Command from the Army side, Central Air Command from the Air Force side and Eastern Naval Command from the Navy's side. 

According to the plan, there would be five theater commands that would include Air Defence Theater Command, Maritime Theater Command, Northern Command (Comprising Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh) and Western Command and Eastern Command. 

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Each theater command will have units from three services to look after the entire security apparatus of the specified geographical territory. 

Currently, the three services have a total of 17 commands spread across the country with the Army and Air Force having seven commands each while the Navy has three commands.