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INDIA'S MILITARY MODERNISATION MUST NOT BE DERAILED BY DEATH OF DEFENCE CHIEF

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 1/19/2022 12:55:11 PM

New Delhi,Jan 18 The death of Indian General Bipin Rawat in a helicopter crash last month may have far-reaching consequences for the Indian military and its defence partnerships with the United States, Japan and Australia under the Quad. Rawat was India’s first chief of defence staff, a position established to oversee reforms to the military and the civilian–military bureaucracy. He took up the role in January 2020 after serving as India’s top army officer during a period marked by targeted and punitive Indian military action against Pakistan and China. However, his most important role as chief of defence staff was to drive the largest restructuring ever undertaken of the Indian military, unpacking its overcomplicated command structure and promoting coordination between its three services. The Indian military’s push to modernise and to make its three services truly interoperable has strong implications for the Indo-Pacific. At present, the Indian military operates under an orthodox doctrine with a focus on capturing territory or using large army formations to impose punitive costs on an enemy. The doctrine has served India well during wartime, including in the ongoing border crisis with China, in which India gained an advantage by capturing sensitive mountainous areas that it used as leverage during negotiations. But the doctrine has encouraged development of a military structure that prioritises India’s continental border, with most of the defence budget spent on maintaining a large physical and deterrent presence along the disputed borders with Pakistan and China. This has come at the cost of investing in India’s presence in the Indian Ocean—the navy remains the most underfunded service. Much-needed structural reforms to deal with modern and non-traditional threats like cyber and grey-zone challenges have also been delayed. The Indian military currently functions with a complex command structure. Seventeen servicespecific commands are divided into overlapping geographical areas, and sometimes the services’ commands overlap. The only tri-service command is located in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, overlooking an important maritime choke point at the mouth of the Malacca Strait. This complicated command structure means the Indian military lags behind defence partners, such as the US military and India’s direct competitor, the Chinese military, when it comes to ensuring that all military services operate under joint theatre commands covering a geographic or thematic area. Rawat was India’s first chief of defence staff, a position established to oversee reforms to the military and the civilian– military bureaucracy. He took up the role in January 2020 after serving as India’s top army officer during a period marked by targeted and punitive Indian military action against Pakistan and China. However, his most important role as chief of defence staff was to drive the largest restructuring ever undertaken of the Indian military, unpacking its overcomplicated command structure and promoting coordination between its three services. The Indian military’s push to modernise and to make its three services truly interoperable has strong implications for the Indo-Pacific. At present, the Indian military operates under an orthodox doctrine with a focus on capturing territory or using large army formations to impose punitive costs on an enemy. The doctrine has served India well during wartime, including in the ongoing border crisis with China, in which India gained an advantage by capturing sensitive mountainous areas that it used as leverage during negotiations. The post of chief of defence staff was created to address this problem by overseeing the creation of joint theatre commands integrating all three military services. As the first appointee to the post, Rawat was at a unique position. He enjoyed the confidence of the political leadership, he had strong military experience in dealing with threats at the border and insurgency, and he was singularly focused on fasttracking reforms. A few months before his death, Rawat publicly shared details of the shape of the proposed joint theatre commands for the first time. India would create four theatre.