Need theatre commands to execute tasks during conflict, says Army Chief
Speaking to the media on the side-lines of a function to release a book authored by Lt Gen KJS Dhillon (retd) here this evening, General Dwivedi said, “Theatrisation is very important and is needed. It is the answer to have unity of command. We need only one commander for execution, but have to see how much time is needed to get to ‘theatreisation’."
Addressing the issue of status along the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan, the Army Chief referred to the recent conflict with Pakistan and said it was too short a time to judge the situation, but added that cross-border terrorism had not stopped.
The Army, he said does not fight alone in a war. The Border Security Force (BSF) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is alongside at the borders. At the tri-services level, there is the defence cyber agency and the defence space agency. There is role of Intelligence agencies, ISRO, civil aviation, railways, state administration. All these agencies have to be coordinated, said the Army Chief as he argued in favour of creating theatre commands.
Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, on August 26, had cautioned against having ‘theatre commands’ for now. He suggested a different format for military coordination, one led at the level of the service chiefs. He also argued for retaining the core competence of each service in the structure of jointness.
The IAF Chief suggested an alternate way to the ‘theatre commands’ saying, “Let us have a joint planning and coordination centre at New Delhi. We plan centrally, while execution of tasks is de-centralised.”
He spoke against disrupting everything and making one structure now at this time, saying, “I do not think it is a very good idea.”
A day later on August 27, Navy Chief Admiral DK Tripathi, batted in favour of having ‘theatreisation’. “The Navy was committed to ‘theatreisation’ as the ultimate goal, and synergizing its communications and combat capability with the Army and IAF," the Admiral said.
‘Theatreisaton’ is a military jargon for creating geographically defined area of operations, with a military commander heading it and controlling all war-fighting assets like planes, copter, guns, tanks, equipment and manpower.
The Chief Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan, on August 27, acknowledged ‘dissonance’ on the subject and added, it was being ‘resolved’. The CDS, who is mandated by the government with creating theatre commands, had said, “It’s a very good sign. If you have sensed some kind of a dissonance, let me assure you that we will resolve it in the best interest of the nation.”
India