CDS Gen Anil Chauhan pitches for new approach to war fighting, calls for “joint culture” in armed forces

New Delhi [India], April 9 (ANI): Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Monday said that there is a need to develop a “joint culture” for the armed forces to distil the best of each service to give a de-novo approach to traditional concepts.

Gen Chauhan was addressing the tri-service conference, ‘Parivartan Chintan’, that brainstormed fresh ideas, initiatives and reforms to further propel “jointness and integration” among the three services.

As deliberations over theatre commands continue, the three services at a day-long tri-service conference on Monday discussed how ‘jointness and integration’ were essential for the transformation to joint structures.

Gen Chauhan emphasised the need to work towards Jointness 2.0 by reinforcing positives and ensuring the speed and momentum of the change to be brought in.

He also dwelled upon larger-scale reforms, aimed at the development of joint culture and quantification of integration efforts to increase our efficiency and enhance warfighting ability and interoperability.

The first-of-the-kind conference primarily delved into various aspects relating to the implementation of the government’s ambitious initiative to roll out theatre commands which were conceived as part of big-ticket defence reforms.

“Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan initiated the ‘Chintan’ by highlighting the need for developing a joint culture for the armed forces, which, while respecting the uniqueness of each service, distils the best of each service to give a de-novo approach to traditional concepts,” the defence ministry said.

“He also stressed upon the need to integrate the capabilities of each service by creating structures that increase our efficiency and enhance our warfighting ability and interoperability,” it said in a statement.

The ministry said “jointness and integration” are the “cornerstones” of the transformation to joint structures which the Indian armed forces are progressing towards with the intention of being “future ready”.

Officers from all three Services and Headquarters IDS, with diverse service experience, also attended the discussion and contributed ideas towards initiating the next generation of reforms related to modernization, procurement, training, adaptation and collaboration while embracing emerging and innovative technologies. Inputs on National Strategic Issues impacting National Security in both the civil and military domains were also deliberated upon.

Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) Lt Gen JP Mathew in his closing remarks expressed confidence that such interactions will provide the necessary guidelines as Joint Operational Structures evolve to transform into a Future Ready Indian Armed Forces.