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India’s push towards integrated military structures has taken a step forward, with Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan confirming that recommendations on theatre commands have been placed before Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, while a Joint Operations Centre is set to be operational by the end of May.
Speaking at the Major General Samir Sinha Memorial Lecture organised by the United Service Institution of India (USI) in New Delhi on Monday, Gen Chauhan said, “Three sets of recommendations on reorganising the armed forces under integrated theatre commands have been submitted to the Defence Minister.”
He added that efforts to strengthen operational synergy are already translating into institutional mechanisms. “A Joint Operations Centre aimed at enhancing jointness and integration will be in place by the end of May,” he said.
Addressing the theme ‘Jointness and Theatrisation: Key Challenges and Progress Made’, the CDS underscored that integration across the services remains central to the reform process. “The basic foundation of theatre commands will rest on the concepts of jointness and integration,” he said, noting that this “time-consuming” work has been a key focus over the past two-and-a-half years.
The proposed theatre command structure, arguably the most significant overhaul of India’s military organisation since Independence, envisages geographically aligned commands integrating assets of the Army, Navy and Air Force under a single commander. The plan includes a northern theatre focused on China, a western theatre for Pakistan, and a maritime theatre.
Gen. Chauhan made it clear that structural reforms are not being held up pending the implementation of theatre command. “Creation of theatre commands will lead to faster and more reforms in the armed forces, and we are not waiting for their creation to usher in those reforms,” he said.
Alongside, the military is expanding its specialised tri-service capabilities. The CDS said work is underway to scale up the Defence Space Agency and Defence Cyber Agency, while progress has been made on setting up an organisation for cognitive warfare. “The file has been moved, and financial clearance has been obtained,” he noted.
He also flagged parallel efforts to establish new institutions, including a Defence Geospatial Agency and a Defence Communication Agency. “Work on all these verticals is continuing in parallel,” Gen. Chauhan said.
These initiatives align with the government’s long-term military transformation roadmap, which includes new tri-service entities such as a data force, a drone force, and a cognitive warfare arm to address emerging threats spanning the information, cyber, and unmanned domains.
Team BharatShakti
