According to Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, Chief of the Integrated Defense Staff, the joint defense operations during Operation Sindoor were merely a “glimpse” of how India’s future theater commands would function. He said on Friday that theaterisation would be the most important defense reform of the country. Addressing ANI’s National Security Summit in the national capital today, the Chief of Integrated Defense Staff (CSIC) spoke about the need for theater commands. He said that we have to understand why we are saying that theatertization is a new reform that we need, and why it will be the most important defense reform that we are considering. We are moving from jointness to integration, and now to theaterization.
Read this also: Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement: India’s defense ecosystem will be the center of innovation, will eliminate external dependence.
He said the aim was to clearly divide responsibilities between force development and use of force. Air Marshal Dixit said that we want to achieve a clear separation between force development and force use. Force development will be the responsibility of the service headquarters, and force use will be the responsibility of the theater commander. He stressed that modern warfare now spans multiple domains, including cognitive warfare, cyber and space, which need to be brought together under a single theater concept.
CSIC Air Marshal Dixit said this is necessary as war now takes place in multiple sectors and on multiple fronts. You need to utilize the potential of each service or each vector at the same time and in a planned manner… All of these have to be brought together, and this can only be done through the theater concept. He further said that the Indian Air Force will continue to operate in its own area, but operations will be much better integrated. Its roles and missions will continue, but everything will be much better integrated across the Army and Navy as well as in the cyber domain. “The impact of each attack or mission will be much greater.”
Read this also: Why only Sindh? Take entire Pakistan, Congress leader Rashid Alvi’s counterattack on Rajnath Singh’s statement
Speaking about Operation Sindoor, CSIC said the joint functioning of the CDS and the three service chiefs during the operation showed only the beginning of the ultimate results for the theater command. Air Marshal Dixit said, “There will be a theater ops room where all the information will come. Theater commanders will be able to take decisions based on it… What you saw during Sindoor was only a glimpse, and it was possible because we have been working on integration and jointness for the last four-five years.”