The personal staff officers for service chiefs of all defence forces, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, will be appointed from their sister services from January 1, 2025, marking a significant move towards achieving uniformity in the forces.
This will be a major move towards the ‘theaterisation’ of the defence forces, a process which began with the appointment of the first Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, in 2020.
All service chiefs used to get their personal staff officers, known as Aide-de-Camp (ADCs), from not only their own services, but also from a unit with which they felt connected. This will be the first time that ADCs will be appointed for service chiefs from other services.
The current Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, is leading a consensus-based approach amongst the three services, which will yield results in 2025.
A consensus has been developed among the three services and top leadership in the government regarding the ‘theaterisation’ of forces, which is evident from the fact that no service chiefs have spoken against the evolving concept of ‘theaterisation’ since September 2022.
Although ‘theaterisation’ has been implemented in the US, China and Russia, no democratic country has succeeded in adopting jointness in the forces after building willing consensus amongst the three main services.
India would be the first democratic country in the world, which would be successful in adopting ‘theaterisation’ through consensus building amongst the three services.
Around 200 subjects have been identified which are required to be tackled in the run-up to adopting ‘theaterisation’ in the country.
Steps are being taken to develop greater tri-services synergy and enhance jointness and integration under eight key domains, including operations and intelligence, operational logistics, capability development, communications and info tech, training, maintenance and support services, human resources, and administration and legal aspects.
Some of the other steps being taken to adopt ‘theaterisation’ in India include:
ââ Systematic work on adoption of jointness and integration across all spectrums of functioning of the defence forces.
ââ Cross-posting of a large number of officers in all the three services, which has readied them to adopt ‘theaterisation’ naturally.
ââ Common format of reporting in their annual reports.
ââ Enabling disciplinary powers, and many more such measures.
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.