NEW DELHI: The Indian Forces have begun raising the Armed Forces Special Operations Division with the appointment of a Major General rank officer to oversee its formation.
The government has approved the raising of the Armed Forces Special Operations Division comprising the Special Forces of the Army, Navy and the Air Force and will be headed by Major General AK Dhingra of the Special Forces Regiment.
“Initially, there will be about 3,000 special forces commandos from the Parachute Regiment of the Army, MARCOS of Navy and the Garud Commandos of the Air Force. It is said to be based in Agra as it already is the base of India’s only Parachute Brigade,” a senior army officer said.
Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia (Retd) believes that the raising of the Special Operations Division is welcome but it is not enough to match the rising stature of the country.
“The proposal was of raising a strategic level formation with the Special Forces Command to be headed by a Lt General. This new raising is of the tactical utility as will be initially mandated to handle the anti-terrorist operations,” said Lt Gen Bhatia, director, Centre for Joint Warfare Studies.
The government has also approved the raising of Defence Cyber Agency, to be headed by Rear Admiral Mohit Gupta. It is to be based out of Delhi.
Sources said that an officer of the rank of Air Vice Marshal for the Defence Space agency, to be based in Bengaluru, has also been finalised and will be announced soon.
Genesis
The Naresh Chandra Task Force in 2012 had recommended the creation of a cyber-command, an aerospace command and Special Operations Command