Following this article - on March 31 2021 Gessler provided highly insightful comments and links here and here. See them below (slightly edited by Pete):
As well as for the
first time appointing a Chief of Defence Staff the Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi Government has carried out other defence reforms in
its 2nd 5 year term (beginning 2019). Note the Constitution of India mandates
parliamentary elections once every five years. Modi was first voted into office in
2014 and his current term is from 2019 to 2024.
The most significant armed forces reform (of Modi’s second term) is easily the Theaterization of the Armed Forces in general, and in particular the creation of the proposed Maritime Theatre Command (MTC). The commander of the MTC will be an Indian Navy officer who will report to the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (see MAP below) headed by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) (General Bipin Rawat) - his appointment reported here).
The Theaterization of the Air-Land tactical command-and-control chain on India's Western and Northern/North-Eastern Borders places all tactical assets in the theatre (infantry, tanks, missiles and aircraft) under one Theatre Commander regardless of which Service recruited or trained that asset. This is very much in accord with the US’s Unified Combatant Command concept. As well as Indian Theatre Commanders the creation of a unified Air Defense Command (likely similar to North America’s NORAD) will likely receive the most attention in the Indian Press. From an Indo-Pacific perspective Gessler estimates the MTC is the most significant in terms of capabilities represented.
A good read regarding this subject is at The Diplomat (paysite) and more accessibly at India's The Print (free site).
The MTC would be unifying the Indian Navy's Western Naval Commend (HQ'd at Mumbai) and Eastern Naval Command (HQ'd at Vishakhapatnam) as well as the already Tri-Service Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Islands Command. These three commands would be under one operational Theatre Commander (likely a Navy Officer) who would use all the assets as he sees fit and would treat the entire Indian Ocean Region as one combat theatre with the Peninsula portion of India at its center. The MTC will reportedly be HQ’d at Karwar Naval Base (INS Kadamba ?) at Karwar, Karnataka, about 600km south, on the coast, from Mumbai (see Map above).
To get a good look at what all the MTC would entail, a somewhat zoomed-out perspective is necessary. Basically you're looking at ALL the ships and submarines of the Indian Navy including:
- major surface combatants,
- carrier task forces,
- diesel and nuclear-powered attack subs,
- all support, auxiliary and special vessels,
- all tactical anti-ship missile forces based from out of both (Eastern and
Western) Peninsular India as well as the A&N Islands,
- all Naval Aircraft (fighters, maritime patrols, drones)
- all Air Force aircraft that till now were shore-based but poised for a maritime
strike role with cruise missiles,
- all Army amphibious infantry personnel which till now were controlled by Army
but made to land on beaches in Navy ships,
- all Naval Special Operations Forces (SOFs),
- all ground-based VLF/ULF transmitters,
- any future dedicated Marine Infantry force,
- control of all Indian military-owned bases in Peninsular India and the Indian Ocean Region, and
- all this and more, under one operational commander, who is Three-star Naval
Officer.
Of course, although the SLBMs on India’s SSBNs would be operationally still under Strategic Forces Command the SSBNs will however be manned and maintained by Navy personnel. Therefore the responsibility to deliver the survivable nuclear deterrent, and to provide the means of protecting them from enemy action, will belong to MTC.
This is more
operational capability (and responsibility) than what any other Theatre Commander under the currently-planned setup would have. And even the Indian Coast
Guard may have to report to the Maritime
Theatre Commander. Therefore the Maritime
Theatre Commander commander would be the most powerful person reporting
to the CDS, who Chairs the Indian Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. This will
inevitably have an impact on the way budgets and priorities are distributed in
the future. Also when dealing with the needs of such a huge command,
prioritization of purchases is likely to take on a whole new level of
importance - no wonder CDS was pushing for it.
Furthermore it would cut the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) office out of the loop of operational control of any assets whatsoever – with the CNS merely confined to an administrative role with the responsibility to recruit, train and base naval personnel, and fill out forms to buy equipment on MRT’s.
With the open ocean in
front of him with no immediate adversary (unlike the Air-Land Theatre Commanders who's job it will be to manage the Chinese and Pakistani borders),
it will leave the MRT commander with a lot of room to manoeuvre and grow.
There are some other views from experts as well, namely that this is too much responsibility for one person and that India may need not one but two Maritime Theatre Commanders:
MTC is the space to watch - how well the Indian Navy's programs evolve in the future (or don't) will be determined by how the MTC turns out.
No comments:
Post a Comment
You can comment :)