National Security Architecture Reforms & Theatre Commands : Discussions
- Thread starter Himanshu
- Start date
Indian Army and Navy favour theatre commands, Air Force plays the lone ranger
While the Indian Army and Navy are in favour of military theatre commands, the Indian Air Force has issues over division of its air assets, nomenclature of commands, leadership of theatre commands and dilution of powers of chiefs.
Four theatre commands likely to be raised by year-end
It’ll be the biggest reorganisation of armed forces since Independence
Unified military commands could be a reality by Independence Day | India News - Times of India
India News: The government is determined to push ahead with joint military commands to build an integrated war-fighting machinery in a more cost-effective manner,
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Northern Command kept out of theaterisation ambit
The Udhampur-based Northern Command is responsible for guarding the country’s borders with Pakistan and China in the north, and is the nerve centre of counterterrorism operations in Jammu & Kashmir.
Lack of clearly defined roles. I have been telling that lack of clearly defined roles is causing delays and very costly duplication. It's time the roles of each arm are clearly defined.
For example in vertical lift/support operations. Follow either the Russian model wherein every manned aircraft comes under its airforce or the US model where every rotor craft needed by the army comes under its Army itself with only a very small number of SAR/Support ones for its airforce.
Further the apex body governing the Armed Force shouldn't be one man office, but atleast 5 man office including representatives from IA, IAF, IN, Intelligence and Finance.
Such clueless guy, we need to check wheather this man had entered in to IA via bribing or not.
The countries who doesn't give importance to its airforce are failed it battles & wars. We have number of examples from real world.
I have been telling this since long, CDS is the worst thing happened to our military in 21st century, his action, his verbal diarrhoea is reinforcing my argument. He wants IAF to cut shot mmrca, navy to dump aircraft carriers etc.
@vstol Jockey,if you have any grip on present governing body in center,for God sake please ask them to remove this joker from the post.
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It appears we are gonna have a mix, with both the army and air force operating rotorcraft in sufficient numbers. The army seems to be interested in a lot of IMRH, as many as 250 the last I heard.
The CDS is correct. But by restricting himself to just one sentence without explaining the entire concept, he's boxed himself into a corner.
We need two air forces, one under the theatre commander for CAS, air interdiction and escort, to do what Rawat wants the air force to do. And the other under the IAF itself meant to create strategic effect, to do what air forces are actually meant to do. So the Air Defence Command should allow the IAF to do the latter.
The problem with meagre assets can be solved over the long run.
We need two air forces, one under the theatre commander for CAS, air interdiction and escort, to do what Rawat wants the air force to do. And the other under the IAF itself meant to create strategic effect, to do what air forces are actually meant to do. So the Air Defence Command should allow the IAF to do the latter.
The problem with meagre assets can be solved over the long run.
This will mean that budget crunch will remain and neither IAF nor IA will be able to raise sufficient numbers. Duplication of roles will eat up large amounts of funds and time. That is was I am pointing out that needs to be solved.
We will need to wait and see what the responsibilities of the Air Defence Command are.
CDS says it's a one-nation, one-command system, which is a very good idea. So there's no duplication of capabilities if all of the air force's capabilities are included in this command. So, if this is the case, then we need to see what sort of assets will be given to the army theatre commanders and what will be held back.
I'm guessing that since we have such a small inventory of force multipliers, the AD Command will control them all. And the theatre commanders may get some access to fighter jets that will be dedicated to air defence and CAS, without diluting the ability of the ADC. Similarly most of the attack helicopters (LCH), transport helicopters (Ka-226T, LUH, ALH, Mi-17, IMRH) and smaller transports jets (C-295, C-130J, IL-214 replacement) that the theatre commanders need will be transferred to their control, whereas strategic transports (C-17, IL-76) and heavy helicopters (Chinook, Mi-26) will be retained under the ADC. Naturally, most of the fighter fleet will still be under the ADC. This will prevent duplication.
IAF has genuine reasons to be worried about theatrisation or Theatre commands
These commands should be nimble and flexible , to evolving situations
For example , If PLAAF relocates 200 fighters to Pakistan and both PAF and PLAAF mount a joint attack from Skardu to Karachi , Will we able to use Air Assets from Eastern Command or NOT like Rafales from Hashimara or NOT
If the PLAAF is able to relocate 200 jets to Pak, then it's likely that they are using even more from their side. So I don't see the point of relocating our own jets in such a situation. But, to answer your question, if the ADC controls most of the fighter jets, then it's naturally possible to relocate them.
One nation, one command should be able to deal with this as long as the assets are assigned to it.