Amid efforts by the government to enhance integration and jointness among the three services, it has been decided that all war games to be carried out by services must include elements from all three armed forces.
At present, the exercises that are conducted individually by the respective services include their elements only but from now on, they will include elements from all three services, defence officials told ANI. The first major exercise which will include the elements from all three services is planned to be the Vayu Shakti exercise scheduled to be held next year by the Indian Air Force, they said.
The exercises till now included only the elements of the Indian Air Force but now it will involve the components of the Indian Army and Indian Navy as well.
The instructions in this regard have been issued by the Department of Military Affairs under the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Anil Chauhan.
The CDS who would be reviewing the passing out parade of the National Defence Academy has been working towards the creation of the theatre commands which were discussed at the last Combined Commanders’ Conference addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bhopal.
The government created the new post of Chief of Defence Staff to hasten the process of increasing jointness among the defence forces which have 17 operational commands headed by commander-in-chief rank officers.
CDS Gen Anil Chauhan has already visited the majority of these 17 formations and the steps being taken by the DMA in this regard.
The theatre commands are planned to be raised to create joint warfighting formations to be ready to meet the challenges of modern warfare.
New formations like the Defence Cyber Agency, tri-services Armed Forces Special Operations Division and Defence Space Agency have been created to support the operations of theatres.