The Show Stopper

A FORCE Report

Despite the inaugural address by the chief of defence staff (CDS), General Anil Chauhan and the plenary session by defence minister Rajnath Singh, the newsmaker of the first tri-service seminar on war, warfare and warfighting, ‘Ran Samwad’, at the Army War College in Dr Ambedkar Nagar (formerly Mhow), was chief of air staff (COAS) Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh. Given that the subject of the seminar was ‘Impact of Technology on Warfare’, perhaps, it was only fitting that the service with the maximum infusion of technology should take the lead.

In a fireside conversation with retired army commander, Lt Gen. Raj Shukla, Singh said of the military reforms, five years in the making since General Bipin Rawat was elevated as India’s first CDS in January 2020, that the government must not push the armed forces into the theaterisation plan. Instead of picking any global model that may not be relevant in the Indian context, the government must consider setting up a joint planning and coordination centre under Chiefs of Staff Committee in Delhi and decentralise execution.

In an exceptional loyalty towards his command, he added that, “We can start with this first, implement it and see how it pans out. If we need any more structure, we can think about it. But disrupting everything and making one structure now at this time, I do not think it is a good idea.” Singh’s spontaneous comments pointed towards two issues. One, even five years after the reforms were first introduced, there is lack of agreement within the services about theaterisation. And two, the much touted ‘jointness’ among the services is nothing more than operational coordination.

The government was so embarrassed by the air chief’s comments that the following day, not only the chief of naval staff (CNS), Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi said theaterisation was “the ultimate goal”, the CDS himself was at pains to explain that nothing will be forced on the services --- “All differences will be resolved.”

‘Differences’ has been the reason that the nuclei of the military reforms announced by General Rawat in 2020 and were to be achieved in two years, remain a work in progress, five years hence. The biggest roadblock has been the Indian Air Force’s (IAF’s) reluctance to subsume its vision for itself and its capabilities into the Indian Army, which Rawat had declared would remain the lead service in warfare. If this dissonance about the emerging shape of warfare and each service’s role in it will remain, the ambitious reforms will remain on the drawing board.

While General Chauhan said that the battlefields of tomorrow will not recognise service boundaries and called for swift and decisive joint responses across domains to ensure victory in future wars, the defence minister steered clear of the service matters, focussing instead on the theme of the seminar, as well as the success of Operatio