All you need to know about the deadline for creating Theatre Commands

New Delhi: The Integrated Theatre Commands (ITCs) will soon be reality. The Government has set a deadline for the unfolding these biggest military reforms.

As per the media reports, the armed forces has been directed to set up the theatre commands within a year after the new government is sworn in.

Theaterisation, largest reform the armed forces would see since India’s independence, will see the merging of 17 commands of the army, air force, and navy into three adversary-specific commands.

The three ITCs will be in Jaipur, Lucknow & Karwar. Jaipur is headquarters of the current South-Western Command. It will be transformed into the Western Theatre Command, to handle Pakistan.

The command looking after China will be the Lucknow-based Northern Theatre Command, which was earlier home to the Central Command.

The commanders of the Western and Northern Theatre Commands will be from the Indian Air Force and Indian Army, appointed on a rotational basis.

The third command will be maritime-specific, commanded by a navy officer, likely based out of Karwar in Karnataka.

Although the command and control of the theatre commands are still not clear, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) will be the overall commander of the theatre commands, with a deputy Vice-CDS. The Vice-CDS post, however, will not be a new post. It will be a re-designation of the Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) to the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) as Vice-CDS.

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