CDS Gen Bipin Rawat holds meeting with top defence and civil officials
The meeting which lasted for three hours, as per the sources, was attended by the Vice Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, representatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Defence, National Security Council, Finance and HQ Integrated Defence Staff.
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New Delhi: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Bipin Rawat has held a meeting with top defence and civil officials to iron out the differences over the issues of creation of four theatre command and division of Indian Air Force’s operational assets.
The meeting which lasted for three hours, as per the sources, was attended by the Vice Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, representatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Defence, National Security Council, Finance and HQ Integrated Defence Staff.
The sources added that the reservation made by the Indian Air Force (IAF) was discussed in the meeting. However, the details have not been shared.
Earlier this month, the IAF had expressed its reservation before Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
As per the source, the major issues that the IAF had flagged before Singh, include allocation of its platforms to various theatre commands, powers of its Chiefs, naming of the commands and also wanted that the command should be rotational.
“There will be more meetings on the issue,” the source added.
Aimed at making the armed forces more efficient and meeting the contingencies of the future battles, where the war is anticipated to be swift and intense, the government has pressed for the reformation and redevelopment of the organisations.
As a first step, the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) was created in 2020 and appointed Chief of Defence Staff Gen Rawat as its Secretary also. He has been tasked to integrate and synergise the armed forces by 2023.
There would be five theatre commands which are in the process of making, include Northern Command, Western Command, Eastern Command, Air Defence Theatre Command and Maritime Theatre Command.
The Northern Command would be comprising of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh region.
Currently, there are 17 commands in the country, including seven each of Army and Air Force while three of Navy.
In 2016, China had also reorganised its seven military regions into five theatre commands and its Western Theatre Command is mandated for borders with India.
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