CDS Gen Anil Chauhan Calls for Creating 'Joint Culture' in Armed Forces

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Anil Chauhan has called upon the three services to create a Joint Culture as they move towards forming Joint Operational Structures. Speaking on ‘Jointmanship : The Way Ahead’ as part of 22nd Major General Samir Sinha Memorial Lecture organised at USI of India in New Delhi, the CDS termed developing Joint Culture in Armed Forces as Jointness 2.0, which is the way forward.

The Chief of Defence Staff said, Jointness 1.0 was about better bonhomie and consensus among the services, and as there were no major differences, there is an impetus to move towards the next level of Jointness which is Jointness 2.0.

Acknowledging the distinct culture of all the three Services, the CDS underscored that there was a need to create a fourth culture in the services. “Joint Culture though different from Service specific Culture, needs to respect the uniqueness of each service. We must be able to distill the best of each service, and incorporate the Highest Common Factor, rather than settle for the Least Common Denominator,” said the Chief of Defence Staff. He mentioned various initiatives of symbology that were being processed towards fostering the Joint Culture, including Tri-Services participation in national events.

The CDS termed Jointness & Integration as pre-requisites to the creation of functional Integrated Theatre Commands, and explained the significance of such Commands. “The creation of such commands will separate the ‘operational’ functions from the Raise-Train-Sustain (RTS) and other administrative functions, and will allow greater focus of the operational commander to matters of security,” he said.

The CDS said the Theatre Commands will not be an end state but the beginning of the next set of reforms. He said, Integrated Theatre Commands will lead to many reforms like Single to Multi Domain operations, fusing space and cyber space into traditional domains, digitisation of battlefield information and visualisation, net centric to data centric among others.

Stressing that the reforms in Indian Defence eco-system are necessity, the CDS said, nation states across the globe are facing a new set of challenges, and current flux in world order is forcing nations to review their security strategies. The rapid and unbridled march of technology is transforming the way future wars will be fought, he added.