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Article:
1. D.S Hooda, a retired Lieutenant General discussed out the need of Integrated Command.
Important Analysis:
2. Military reforms and need of Theater Command (Joining Army, Navy and Air force) has been in debate for long.
3. In Author views, without restructuring in higher defence organization, moving ahead with Integrated command will not server the purpose.
4. Under restructuring Higher Defence Organization, Appointment of Chief of Defence is very vital to bring overall efficiency and encourage jointness among three services.
5. The Indian Air force has also expressed operational problems in being delegated under theatre commands, due to shortage of resources
6. What is Integrated Theater Command
- Integrated theater command combined and places the resources of all forces i.e. from the IAF, the Army and the Navy at the command of single senior military commander.
- The logistic resources required to support his operations will also be placed at the disposal of the theatre commander.
- These ‘unified combat commands’ are organized either on geographical basis with a defined mission in a specific ‘area of responsibility’ somewhere on the globe or on a ‘functional’ basis.
- DB Shekatkar committee has recommended the creation of 3 integrated theatre commands — northern for the China border, western for the Pakistan border and southern for the maritime role
.7. However, the Author has made an argument against the need of theater command such as:
- Capturing grounds beyond few KMs and taking control of maritime space is not a sustainable idea and it will lead to depletion of resources.
- Theatre Commands would demand large increase in expenditure with doubtful returns
- Due to advancement in special weapons that can degrade and destroy the enemy’s potential, reduces the need for direct confrontation.
- Would a new organization improve jointness.
- Each command has specific weaponry strength according to their geographical need and vision regarding the nature and character of conflict in future.
- Defence services has made plans based on assumption that the war will be short and swift.
- Political influence decides the start and termination of war and the manner in which they will be fought.
- Such as, war in Kargil, Operation Parakram against Pakistan have political influence which hindered the Army to take effective action.
- Another example is, there was an outrage in country and calls for retaliation operation after Mumbai attack. However, Political decision makers ruled out the involvement of Army to attack on Pakistan.
- Even, the dominance of American Military has not achieved any political objectives in Afghanistan.
7. Before Indian take a concrete steps towards the Integrated Command, India need to debate on characters of future war such as:
- Strategy in case of conflict with Nuclear states.
- Dealing with Hybrid Conflict involving criminal elements such as Lashkar-e-Taiba in Punjab Province of Pakistan.
- What sort of weapons China may use in the war, will it use military force or technology based ballistic missile.
- Psychological impact of long range missile on masses when they assume war is real between people instead of war on border.
- The evolving nature of the warfare has changed the way combat is carried out and the focus on integrated commands might actually be redundant
8. Keeping all these reason, Author has suggested
- All three services need to sit together to find the realistic solution.
- Need of Synergy between Political Leaders and Military objectives.
- India should have a plan for war, range from non-contact to full scale war.
