The Army, Navy, and Indian Air Force (IAF) are “99%” on board with the general outline of the theatre commands being shaped by Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Anil Chauhan, it is learned after months of dithering, several proposals, and objections.

“1% is still present, but this is still a work in progress. According to a prominent source in the defence and security sector, it will take some more time.

The source explained to ThePrint that the problem was more administrative than operational when asked what concerns still lingered.

The purpose of establishing theatre commands is to facilitate better preparation and a coordinated military response to any potential conflicts. Three theatre commands based on geographic borders will exist under the present design, which is different from what was originally envisioned.

According to sources, two of the three will be land-based and one would be maritime.

Like the service chiefs and the CDS, the three theatre commands are most likely to be led by four-star officers.

Three-star officers will be in charge of other joint commands, such as those for logistics, training, cyber and space, missiles, and intelligence.

All the theatre commanders will report to the CDS with the service chiefs being responsible for raise and sustenance issues, sources said.

While it was claimed in February 2020 that the theatre commands will be ready in three years, ThePrint had reported that strong differences among the armed forces over the basic structure of theatre commands would be a delaying factor.

The CDS, as secretary, Department of Military Affairs, has been tasked with the “facilitation of restructuring of military commands for optimal utilisation of resources by bringing about jointness in operations including through establishment of joint/theatre commands”.

This envisages a unified military under specific commanders with area of responsibility, similar to Americans and the ChineseFormer CDS late Gen Bipin Rawat was keen to roll out two theatres first — the Maritime Theatre Command and the Air Defence Command.

While the nearly 17-lakh strong Indian armed forces have 19 individual commands as of date, only two of them are tri-service commands — the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) and the Strategic Forces Command, the latter looking after nuclear assets.

The original idea was to cut down these different service commands to five theatres and functional commands — the Northern Land Theatre (Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Central sector), the Western Land Theatre (Pakistan centric), the Eastern Land Theatre, the Maritime Theatre Command and the Air Defence Command.

It is expected that the final contours of the theatre command structure will be formalised over the next few months, and will then go through a formal approval process.