India is currently gearing up to implement one of the largest reforms in the history of the country’s military- theaterisation. In this article, Team YLCC brings you clarity on what is theaterisation or theatre command and how it is shaping to be a policy in India. Read on!
WHAT IS A THEATRE COMMAND?
A theatre command is an organisational structure designed to control all military assets in a theatre of war to achieve maximum military impact. Theatre command, is in fact, another name for joint command in the sphere of military parlance (of army, air force and naval forces). It places the resources of all forces at the command of a senior military commander.
The dictionary meaning of a theatre of war is ‘the entire land, sea and air areas that is or may become involved directly in war operations’.
HISTORY OF THEATERISATION
The word ‘theatre warfare’ became more prominent during World War II with the battles being fought across continents. During World War 1 too, battles were fought across the world, but the major ones took place in what was then known as the European theatre. In World War II, new theatres emerged with multiple fronts — Nordic Front, Western Front and Eastern Front. There was also the Pacific-Asian Theatre, Africa and Middle East Theatre. These theatres referred to the geographical grounds of the battle and all deployments — army, navy and air force — happened accordingly in a unified manner.
In contemporary times, most leading militaries including those of the United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom and France, function as per the theatre command concept with the idea of seamless integration among the land, sea and air forces for better coordination and response. The US military, the world’s most powerful, has 11 combatant commands, each with a geographic or functional mission. Similarly, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has five theatre commands — eastern, southern, western, northern and central, with its western theatre handling the entire border with India.
CURRENT POLICY UNDER CONSIDERATION
The armed forces of India currently have 17 single-service commands spread across the country’s geography. Out of these, 7 commands belong to the Army, the Air Force has 7 commands and the Navy operates 3 commands.
India’s first chief of defence staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat has been given the mandate to steer the theaterisation drive. The government has placed the onus on Rawat, who took charge as CDS on January 1, 2020, to bring about an integration of the three services in a three-year time frame (by January 2023). The proposed plans involve theaterisation not just in operations and logistics but also transport, training, support services and repairs and maintenance.
The new model of theaterisation which is under consideration for implementation is aimed at setting up 5-6 new integrated commands. The first phase of this plan involves the establishment of:
- Air Defence Command– This will control air defence resources of all three services and will be under the obligation of protecting military assets from airborne enemies. It will be headed by a top three-star Indian Air Force officer based in Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad).
- Maritime Theatre Command- This aims at securing India from seaborne threats and will have army and air force elements. It will be headed by a top three-star Indian Navy officer operating from Karwar in the state of Karnataka.
ISSUES GOING FORWARD WITH A THEATRE COMMAND STRUCTURE
A lack of mutual agreement across branches regarding the theaterisation model has become evident in a key, high-level meeting of top government officials reviewing a draft cabinet note on the new joint structures. This has compelled the government to set up an Expert Committee for consultations and to remove the differences before the reform plan is forwarded for consideration and approval to the Cabinet Committee on Security for approval.
There are several other issues with implementing the new framework, some of which have been discussed below:
LACK OF COORDINATION
- For several years, India was the only major military that did not have a CDS-type post. This had created problems for the integration of the three branches of the military and also on other issues like joint training and planning.
- The three service chiefs are considerably protective of their respective turfs and often perpetuate a single-service approach to training, planning and operations.
- Under the previous structure, the service chiefs were used to a very high degree of functional autonomy, leading to unnecessary duplication, wasteful expenditure and a single-service mindset.
INEFFECTIVE CHIEF OF STAFF COMMITTEE
The Chief Of Staff Committee as an experiment has not worked very well. For all practical purposes, the COSC has been found to be driven by Single-service requirements and perceptions. Moreover, the Chairman of the COSC lacks executive authority over any Service other than his own Service.
In addition to this, the COSC works primarily through a system of consensus and therefore finds it extremely difficult to agree on hard decisions that will have binding effect across all Services.
IMPACT ON BATTLE PREPAREDNESS
In the event of war, theaterisation may mean that the fate of an entire campaign can depend on a single decision. Furthermore, such a decision can be made by a specially selected defence chief such as the CDS and not by a Committee like the COSC that operates on the principle of the least common denominator. In addition to this, in the newly emerging scenarios, with threat perceptions always undergoing change, the possibility of an asymmetrical or lightning strike assault remains high.
CONCERNS OF THE AIR FORCE
For long time, the Indian Air Force has been a vocal opposition against the policy of theaterisation. This may be owed to a number of reasons. First of all, the IAF claims not to have enough resources — fighter squadrons, mid-air refuellers and AWACS — to allocate them dedicatedly to different theatre commanders. Secondly believes that India is not geographically large enough to be divided into different theatres, as resources from one theatre can easily be moved to another theatre.
It is important to conclusively resolve these conflicts before theaterisation in Indian military can be brought into effect.
YLCC would like to thank the Content Team for their valuable insights in this article.