NEW DELHI: In yet another step to integrate the personnel of the Armed Forces the Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force have unanimously agreed for cross posting of their personal staff in the form of Aide-de-Camps (ADCs) from the other services.
As per the sources so far the service chiefs were not only getting their ADCs from their services but also from the units to which they felt connected in a special way.
"This change has been adopted by all the three service chiefs from 01 Jan 2025 signaling the major changes coming in 2025.", said sources, "It may appear a small step but it is one of the biggest signalings for transforming Defence Forces."
To begin with the Army Chief will get the ADC also from the Air Force, Air Chief from the Indian Navy and the Navy Chief from the Army. This step, among the many, is in consonance with comprehensive changes being made by the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) led by General Anil Chauhan, Chief of Defence Staff, under a long-term plan which will ultimately shape into the Integrated Theatre Commands (ITCs). Under the Human Resource (HR) reforms being undertaken, the first set of cross-postings of junior officers was executed in mid-2023, with mid-level and senior officers being placed in important billets in mid-2024.
A special Joint Division has also been created at the Defence Services Staff College to foster a collaborative and inter-service approach to jointness and integration in warfare and focus on inter-service understanding and cooperation, thus empowering them to lead the way in the upcoming era of Theatre Commands.
Building consensus, including those on the formulation of the ITCs have been the high point, amongst the three services and top leadership in the Government. Enumerating more on the additional actions been taken for seamless adoption of the Theaterisation, sources listed: "Due impetus has been given towards developing greater tri-services synergy and enhance Jointness and Integration under eight key domains viz Operations & Intelligence, Operational Logistics, Capability Development, Communications & Info Tech, Training, Maintenance & Support Services, Human Resources and Administration & Legal aspects.", sources elaborated.
Aides-de-Camp (ADCs), as the personal staff, are privileged ones and a selected lot of the Armed Forces of the ranks of the Captain/ Major and equivalent ranks from the other services. The ADCs serve the three Service Chiefs, Force Commanders, and the Corps Commanders. ADCs also serve the President and the Governors. The emphasis of the current CDS has been "spearheading a consensus-based approach amongst the three services the success of which is going to knock the door of our defence forces in 2025. India would be the first democratic country in the world which will be successful in adopting Theaterisation through consensus building amongst the three services, viz Army, Navy and Air force."
To underline the process of consensus the sources mentioned, "the Theaterisation has been adopted by those countries which either follow the autocratic way of functioning (Russia, China) or by the Government order in top-down format (USA) or those who have a security umbrella like NATO (France, Germany). There has been no democratic country in the world which has succeeded in adopting Theaterisation after building willing consensus amongst the three main services viz Army, Navy and Air Force."
Close to 200 subjects have been identified which are required to be tackled in the run up to getting the operationally ready Theaters. Most of these building blocks, to ensure the requisite capability to undertake operations, have already been curated for efficient functioning while few balanced ones will also get resolved before the Theaterisation is announced. The warfighting structure is being reorganised into theatre commands so as to have assets of all three forces under one commander, who will be responsible for all operations under his theatre.
The Maritime Theatre Command, based out of Karwar in Karnataka, would be entrusted with coastal and maritime operations. The Western Integrated Theatre Command will be responsible for defence and security bordering Pakistan. The Northern Integrated Theatre Command will have the entire northern border with China under its area of responsibility with headquarters in Lucknow.