With rapidly changing nature of warfare, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Monday underlined the need for developing a joint culture for the armed forces.
Making this assertion at the first day long Tri-Service conference ‘Parivartan Chintan,’ here he also stressed upon the need to integrate the capabilities of each service by creating structures that increase our efficiency and enhance our war fighting ability and interoperability.
The CDS initiated the ‘Chintan’ by highlighting the need for developing a Joint Culture for the Armed Forces, which while respecting the uniqueness of each service, distils the best of each service to give a de-novo approach to traditional concepts.
The Tri-service Conference, ‘Parivartan Chintan’, was curated as a brainstorming and idea incubation discussion to generate new and fresh ideas, initiatives and reforms to further propel Jointness and Integration in the Armed Forces.
Jointness and Integration are the cornerstones of the transformation to Joint Structures which the Indian Armed forces are progressing towards with the intention of being “Future Ready”.The Conference was attended by Heads of the Andaman and Nicobar Command and Strategic Forces Command, Commandants of National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College, College of Defence Management and Military Institute of Technology as well as Heads of the Armed Forces Special Operations Division, Defence Space Agency, Defence Cyber Agency and the Defence Communication Agency. The brainstorming was orchestrated by the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff.
Officers from all the three Services and Headquarters IDS, with diverse service experience also attended the discussion and contributed ideas towards initiating the next generation of reforms related to modernization, procurement, training, adaptation and collaboration while embracing emerging and innovative technologies. Inputs on National Strategic Issues impacting National Security in both the civil and military domains were also deliberated upon.
Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) Lt General J P Mathew in his closing remarks expressed confidence that such interactions will provide the necessary guidelines as Joint Operational Structures evolve to transform to a Future Ready Indian Armed Forces.
The first-of-the-kind conference primarily delved into various aspects relating to the implementation of the government's ambitious initiative to roll out theatre commands which were conceived as part of big-ticket defence reforms.
It is learnt that each of the three services put across their work in line with the overall policy approach to ensure jointness.
The roadmap for the theaterisation initiative also figured in the discussions.
According to the theaterisation plan, each of the theatre commands will have units of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force and all of them will work as a single entity looking after security challenges in a specified geographical territory.
