[image: Army, Navy and Air Force contingents at the India Gate in NewDelhi.]
NEW DELHI – The Indian Air Force has harmed itself by opposing‘theaterisation’ and this has resulted in weakening of trust between it andthe army and the navy, a top navy officer wrote in a new paper published bydefence think-tank Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (Cenjows) on Friday ina rare criticism of one service by a serving senior officer in another.
The paper, titled ‘The IAF and Theaterisation — Misplaced Apprehensions,’is a deep dive into the military’s approach towards enhancing so-calledjointmanship and its progression tow-ard theaterisation. Jointmanshiprefers to a degree of co-ordination and integration in terms of bothstrategy and execution across the three services. Theaterisation refers toplacing under a Theatre Commander, specific units of the army, the navy,and the air force, Hindustan Times has reported.
There is stiff resistance from the IAF to theaterisation, or setting up ofintegrated commands where the assets of all three defence arms would comeunder the operational control of a three-star officer from any of the threeservices, depending on the function assigned to that command.
“By continuing to stress on a ‘do it alone’ command structure, the IAF hasonly harmed itself. It has resulted in a weakening of trust with the othertwo services who have attempted to resolve the issue by investing intointegral air power,” rear admiral Monty Khanna wrote.
Cenjows was set up by the defence ministry over a decade ago.
The two-star admiral is currently posted at the prestigious DefenceServices Staff College, Wellington, where he is the navy’s chief instructor.
Citing the examples of the navy and army deploying air assets, Khanna notesin the paper, “This chipping away of IAF roles will continue until thefundamental issue of trust is addressed. For doing so, the IAF would needto embrace the deepening of its integration with the other two servicesrather than back-pedal on this relationship.”
The principle of “one front, one commander” would require the cutting downthe number of existing commands from 14 to around four. While all the threeservices would be impacted, the IAF could get the short end of the stickwith the most to lose, the paper states.
“This is the 800 pound gorilla in the room which often unites the threeservices in opposing theaterisation. Understandably, opposition from theIAF is the most vehement.” Khanna wrote. This is an issue that the threeservices have to resolve among themselves and thereafter take up with thegovernment.
Cenjows director, lieutenant general Vinod Bhatia (retd), described thepaper as “very significant” as it made a strong case for theaterisation ata time it is “very much required” and being pushed by the government.
“We are opposed to the idea of theater commands and have articulated ourstand to the government,” said Air Marshal KK Nohwar (retd), who heads theCentre for Air Power Studies.
While a navy official refused to comment, saying that the admiral hadauthored the paper for a think tank, defence ministry officials declined toreact, saying they hadn’t read the paper.