{"id":182546,"date":"2022-05-03T21:03:26","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T15:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=182546"},"modified":"2022-05-03T21:03:26","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T15:33:26","slug":"a-new-cds-is-urgently-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-new-cds-is-urgently-need\/","title":{"rendered":"A New CDS Is Urgently Need\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News:<\/span><\/b> Recently, the <\/span>first chief of defence staff<\/span><\/b> General Bipin Rawat died in a helicopter crash almost five months ago. The post remained in cold storage after the <\/span>1999 Kargil conflict<\/span><\/b>. The first-ever CDS was appointed in 2019. The post of the chief of defence staff is significant for reforms in the Indian Armed forces.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Armed Forces Reforms Across the World<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Around 70 countries, including the US, UK, France and Germany, have a CDS-like post for integration in military planning and operations.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The US has <\/span>11 unified combatant commands<\/span><\/b>, which <\/span>include <\/span>six \u2018geographical\u2019 theatre<\/span><\/b> commands to handle different parts of the globe and <\/span>five \u2018functional\u2019 commands<\/span><\/b> that handle nuclear arsenal, special operations, space, cyberspace and transport.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2016, China re-organised its People\u2019s Liberation Army into <\/span>five theatre commands. It improves the PLA\u2019s<\/span><\/b> command-and-control structures<\/span><\/b> and<\/span> boosts <\/span>offensive capabilities <\/span><\/b>against the enemy. For example, <\/span>China\u2019s Western Theatre Command<\/span><\/b> handles the entire Line of Actual Control (LAC).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Issues in front of the Indian Military Forces<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

India is the world\u2019s third-largest military spender. However, it is plagued with <\/span>haphazard planning, ineffectual policies, piecemeal reforms<\/span><\/b> and the poor <\/span>domestic defence-industrial base<\/span><\/b>. Therefore, India is the world\u2019s largest arms importer, accounting for 11% of global imports.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Indian armed forces grapple with shortages of fighters, submarines, helicopters or different kinds of ammunition.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

India is facing border disputes. For example, there is an ongoing border crisis with China in eastern Ladakh.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are challenges of military modernisation due to pressure of the ballooning salary and pension bills.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are the <\/span>new warfare domains<\/span><\/b> of <\/span>space<\/span><\/b> and <\/span>cyberspace<\/span><\/b> as well as <\/span>clandestine<\/span><\/b> operations<\/span><\/b>. For example, China has developed <\/span>cyberweapons<\/span><\/b> to destroy an adversary\u2019s military assets, strategic networks, energy, banking, transport and communication grids even before the actual <\/span>kinetic wa<\/span><\/b>r kicks off.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the status of services\/theatre commands in India?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

At present, there are existing <\/span>17 single-service commands<\/span><\/b> (army 7, IAF 7 and navy 3). In addition, India currently has only two unified commands, the \u2018<\/span>geographical\u2019 Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC<\/span><\/b>) and the \u2018<\/span>functional\u2019 Strategic Forces Command (SFC)<\/span><\/b> to handle the nuclear arsenal.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is proposed to subsume <\/span>17 single-service commands<\/span><\/b> under 4<\/span> integrated commands. <\/span><\/b>This would ensure avoiding wastage of manpower, infrastructure and resources. The commands will prepare the forces for <\/span>integrated land-air-sea operations<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Functions and Importance of the newly created position of the chief of defence staff (CDS)<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

The CDS is important to accomplish the task of building a <\/span>lean<\/span><\/b>, <\/span>mean<\/span><\/b>, <\/span>integrated warfighting machine<\/span><\/b> within <\/span>budgetary constraints<\/span><\/b>. The <\/span>annual defence budget<\/span><\/b> is unlikely to see a dramatic hike due to competing demands from other sectors in a developing country like India.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The position is the <\/span>prime driver<\/span><\/b> behind the <\/span>far-reaching restructuring<\/span><\/b> of the Indian armed forces.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He can build <\/span>military capabilities<\/span><\/b> of India<\/span><\/b> with proper <\/span>inter-service prioritisation<\/span><\/b> in tune with <\/span>India\u2019s geopolitical objectives<\/span><\/b>. Therefore, the first CDS has proposed the creation of the <\/span>four integrated commands<\/span><\/b> in India. These commands would have the assets and manpower of army, navy and IAF under a <\/span>single operational commander<\/span><\/b> in each theatre.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He can promote <\/span>synergy<\/span><\/b> among the army, navy and IAF in planning, procurements, logistics, doctrines and operations.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, the CDS has been responsible for creation of the <\/span>small tri-service Defence Space Agency<\/span><\/b>, <\/span>Defence Cyber Agency,<\/span><\/b> and the<\/span> Armed Forces Special Operations Division.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Way Forward<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

There is also the urgent need to <\/span>right-size the armed forces<\/span><\/b> by slashing the <\/span>non-operational flab<\/span><\/b> and <\/span>infusing cutting-edge military technologies<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Various government initiatives are facing criticism. For example, the <\/span>\u2018Tour of Duty\u2019 scheme<\/span><\/b>, proposal to make <\/span>Short Service Commission (SSC)<\/span><\/b> more attractive like grant of paid study leave to a golden handshake at the end of their tenures of 10-14 years etc.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/span><\/b>: The post is based on an article \u201c<\/span>A New CDS Is Urgently Needed<\/span><\/b>\u201d published in The Times of India<\/strong> on 3<\/strong><\/span>rd<\/strong> May 2022<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: Recently, the first chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat died in a helicopter crash almost five months ago. The post remained in cold storage after the 1999 Kargil conflict. The first-ever CDS was appointed in 2019. The post of the chief of defence staff is significant for reforms in the Indian Armed forces.\u00a0\u00a0… Continue reading A New CDS Is Urgently Need\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10496],"class_list":["post-182546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704951062},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}