The Armed Forces have recently put out a joint doctrine.
What are the features?
The document addresses the principles guiding the Indian military’s approach to everything from nuclear war to internal security and counter-insurgency.
The doctrine explicitly acknowledges that “surgical strikes” will be a formal part of India’s retaliatory toolkit against “terror provocations.”
This is the first authoritative document released by the Indian government to use the phrase of “credible minimum deterrence” (CMD) in place of “credible deterrence” (CD).
The doctrine paints potentially a new portrait of how India separates the control of its nuclear weapons between military and civilian authorities.
The doctrine is revealing of the Indian military’s contemporary preferences for expeditionary and overseas operations.
e.g The document calls for “complete and effective inter-operability” with “countries, big and small” — a tacit endorsement of ever-closer logistics, communications, and intelligence collaboration with countries ranging from the United States, Japan, and Australia to smaller powers in Southeast Asia.
What should be done?
Our Armed Forces is structured and operated in compartments.
The need of the hour is the integrated mechanisms.
A Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) was recommended for this purpose.
He would be the principal military advisor to the government and oversee joint operational functioning of the three wings.
India is still a largely continental country and threats to its territorial integrity.
This clearly calls for land-based responses of various kinds, supported by the use of air power where necessary.
Land power will continue to play a seminal role in our security concerns.
So we need a single-point military advisor who must be an army person in the foreseeable future, and that authority should oversee operational functions.
We could also have some army-air force unified commands especially in the northern sectors.
But we must recognise the fact that the optimal concept of full integration is not feasible for some time to come.
The sum of Rs 2.74 lakh crore that we will spend this year on defence preparedness is not something to be scoffed at.
It must give value for money not just in numbers and types of ships or aircraft or guns or tanks, but in the quality of management that their exploitation must involve.
