Army Chief stresses integration of Army, Navy, Air Force for better coordination

Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi emphasised that theaterisation- the integration of the Army, Air Force, and Navy- is inevitable, with the only uncertainty being the timeline for its implementation. He added that when coordination among multiple agencies is required, "theaterisation is the solution."

Dwivedi made the remarks while launching a book titled 'Operation Sindoor: The Untold Story of India's Deep Strikes Inside Pakistan' at Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi.

"Theaterisation will come, today or tomorrow. We just have to see how long it will take. We have to go through certain steps to bring in theaterisation, which includes jointness, integration. A lot of things need to be discussed over for that," the Army chief said.

He also explained why theaterisation is necessary. "When we fight a battle, an Army doesn't fight alone. We have the Border Security Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. Then there are the tri-services, defence cyber agencies, defence space agencies, and now we are talking about cognitive warfare agencies. Besides, there are agencies such as the ISRO, Civil Defence, Civil Aviation, Railways, NCC, state and Central administrations...

"If one has to deal with so many agencies, theaterisation is the answer. Because unity of command is more important. You need one commander to achieve coordination in execution. Theaterisation is absolutely necessary," he asserted.

The Army chief's remarks come nearly two weeks after the chiefs of the other two forces expressed their views on theaterisation. At a two-day tri-services seminar 'Ran Samwad' held at the Army War College in Mhow last month, Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal A P Singh and Navy chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi spoke on theaterisation, making it clear that the two forces have divergent views on the plan.

The Chief of Air Staff had said that armed forces should not come under any pressure to roll out theatre commands. Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan had said that "dissonance" in the military on setting up tri-services commands will be addressed, keeping in mind the best interest of the nation.

The Army Chief also welcomed the move to revise the Goods and Services Tax (GST) into two slabs of 5 and 18 per cent. "Our defence corridors will get a major filip, because there would be more investments. The MSMEs and start-ups face difficulties as they have less funding. The GST reduction will give them a boost," he said.

Dwivedi said the force mainly looks at three things- research and development, training and modernisation- and the GST reduction will benefit all three segments.

GST rates on heavy equipment have been reduced from 18 per cent to 5 per cent, which he said will "facilitate us in our modernisation and upgradation work". On the rate cut on Unarmed Aerial Vehicles (UAV), he said it would give a major push. "In future wars, drones, UAVs, and counter UAVs will have a big role. So keeping that in mind, it is good news for us," he said.

(With inputs from PTI)