Each Tri – Services Theatre to be LED by four-star officers
By
Colonel Awadhesh Kumar
India needs to have Five HQ Theatre, each under Command a four star General. There should have been no doubts in the rank of the Theatre Commander.
However the ignorant Indian media has all along been harping that the Theatre Commander will be a three star Officer of the rank of a Lt General/Air Marshal/Vice Admiral.
Simply a glance indicates that each HQ Theatre will encompass a total of two or more of existing Army Commands + one Air Force Command and/ or one Naval Command.
So the HQ Theatre will be covering a vast geographical area and will have a bigger Force level than a single Command. Doing away with HQ Commands will neither be viable nor pragmatic because under the Theatre Commander we must have each service Component Commanders.
Otherwise it will be a nightmare for the Theatre Commander in exercising operational control over six or more Corps HQ, a dozen Air Wings and one Naval Fleet. So there has to be Service Component Commanders for each. Naturally the Theatre Commander commanding two or more C in Cs must be a four star Officer.
The USA by law has a fixed number of four star officers for each Service …Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and the Space Force. A similar law may be enacted to fix the number of four star officers for the Services i.e. 10 (CDS, VCDS, three Service Chiefs, five theatre Commanders). At the same time the number of civil services officials equivalent to four star rank and in pay scale of Cabinet Secretary should also be fixed by legislation.
However as per grapevine initially there may be just three HQ Theatres — two adversary specific and one maritime command — of the Indian Armed Forces to be commanded by four-star rank officers.
The most important thing for overall National Security will be to decide by legislation the Chain of Command of the Theatre Commanders. In our context the recommended Chain of Operational Command should be Cabinet Committee Security …..the Chief of Defence Staff ….Theatre Commanders. The administrative Chain should be CCS…Raksha Mantri … Chief of Staff Committee … HQ IDS ….Services HQ …Theatre Commanders.
The theatre commanders will report to the CDS through HQ IDS.
According to various reports, two theatre commands will be adversary specific, each centred around China and Pakistan, while the third theatre command will be maritime specific, primarily handling the Indian Ocean Region.
Moreover, the government has decided to create more joint HQ like Special Forces cyber, space, and logistics commands, which will headed by Lt Generals in pay grade 17.
The proposal for the creation of National Defence University (NDU) will also be revived. The NDU will be tasked to help generate ideas and papers for official doctrines, concepts, and theories for the new HQ Theatres etc.
Some people unaware of matters military have raised concern that how will the Army, Navy and Air Force chiefs listen to the theatre commanders in times of war. The answer is simple they will not be in the operational chain of Command.
However the Chief of Staff Committee headed by CDS and Comprising VCDS and the three Service Chiefs will be the highest advisory body to the CCS and the Raksha Mantri and therefore be in the loop of all matters.
