Op Sindoor demonstrated jointness among 3 services
NEW DELHI: Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan stressed the importance of jointness and integration across the Armed Forces, assuring that each service, the Army, Navy, and Air Force will preserve its distinct identity while adopting the best practices from others.
Speaking at an interactive session during the two-day Indian Military Heritage Festival (November 14-15), organised by the United Service Institution (USI), Gen Chauhan highlighted real-world examples of seamless tri-service coordination from the recent Operation Sindoor.
The discussion revolved around his latest book, Ready, Relevant and Resurgent II: Shaping a Future Ready Force, where he teased a potential third volume that could delve deeper into insights from Operation Sindoor. Asked about the government’s vision to achieve jointness and integration among the three services of the armed forces, he cited a few examples from the recent military action of India in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, and the days that preceded the precision strikes.
On May 7, Indian armed forces struck multiple terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK).
The CDS said, while the efforts are underway in line with the vision of jointness, each service will “retain its individual identity”, as that is important, since they have a specific kind of role, so there is no dilution in it.
“We are trying to take the best practices from each service… not the lowest common denominator, but the highest common factor, we are trying,” he added.
The CDS further said that during the period of April 22-May 7, there was a need to reassess as to what is “our requirement of assets” which had to be moved to the western side, and it required a lot of movement by air.
It was “seamlessly done”, the general officer asserted.
“I didn’t even get to know, neither did the service chiefs, it was done at one-star level (officer),” he said.
The CDS also underlined how, for achieving integration, all the three services have common equipment, such as MRSAMs and BrahMos.
“And, the inventory is available and.. able to speak to each other. So, we are at a particular stage in integration,” he said.
The officer further shared that the Navy also took part in a “couple of these strikes which took place across the border”.
“They used their equipment PALM 400 and PALM 120, which is a loiter munition, which has a very long range, which was available with the Navy.
“Unfortunately, this was not known to the Army and the Air Force. But, it was known to Headquarters IDS, because we integrate things. We offered it to the Army, and the Air Force..it was a joint.. MARCOS went to land borders along with the Air Force and the Army,” he said.
The CDS also spoke of fostering a “joint culture” in the military, in line with the planned theaterisation.
“Suppose you have a joint headquarters or theatre headquarters in the future, you will have staff which is common. This.. has to be trained in a common manner, which we are trying to do in a (joint) staff college. We are developing a joint culture,” he said.
During the interaction, Gen Chauhan also said that “human geography” along with physical geography is equally important in understanding warfare, especially in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations.
“When we are talking of cognitive warfare, psychology warfare, social engineering, unless we don’t understand the human geography of that particular place, I don’t think it’s possible,” he added.
So, both geographies are important and will remain relevant for times to come, physical as well as human geography, the CDS asserted.
“In any kind of a war, how do we win, we win by creating asymmetries against the adversary. These asymmetries are easy to create in new domains, not in old domains,” the officer said.
So, when warfare was taking on land, people invented maritime domain, so there one could create asymmetries and influence a warfare, he underlined.
“Similarly, if you look at air power. So, today, we are at the cusp, where the traditional domains of land, maritime and air are over, and new domains are important. Space is an important domain, and if there are asymmetries, other nations will exploit these asymmetries to defeat you in space first, and warfare in other domains will come later,” he said.
In the older domain, the “fight will always be bloody, very, very bloody. It will be difficult, hard-slogging match. But, in the new domain, it will be smart, fast and technology-intensive, so you will win in that new domain,” the CDS said.
