In a major step towards modernisation and transformation of the country's armed forces, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on Tuesday, authorised the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), to issue joint instructions and joint orders for all three services—Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force.
This marks a shift from the earlier system wherein instructions or orders pertaining to two or more services were issued by each service separately.
The move comes amid the push to set up integrated theatre with the goal of enhancing tri-service synergy and operational effectiveness.
The first joint order on ‘Approval, Promulgation and Numbering of Joint Instructions and Joint Orders’ released emphasises the need to streamline procedures, eliminate redundancies and enhance cross-service cooperation, the defence ministry said.
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The initiative is expected to lead to improved transparency, coordination and administrative efficiency in the three services.
"It also marks the beginning of a new era of jointness and integration, reinforcing the armed forces' unity of purpose in serving the Nation," the defence ministry said.
Recently, CDS General Anil Chauhan in the preface of his book 'Ready, Relevant and Resurgent: A Blueprint for the Transformation of India's Military' observed that ‘theaterisation’ of the armed forces aims to create two parallel and complementary streams for ‘force application’ and ‘force generation’.
He wrote that the core function of the chiefs of the Indian Army, the Navy and the Air Force will be to ‘Raise, Train and Sustain (RTS)' while theatre commanders will have a more prominent role in military operations.
