New Delhi: India has declared 2025 as the year of defense reforms and said that the focus will be to roll out integrated theater commands to boost tri-services synergy and ensure simpler and time-sensitive military procurement with a broader aim to transform the military into a technologically-advanced force.
The overall aim of the nine-point reforms planned by the defense ministry would be to ensure deeper collaboration among key stakeholders, break silos, eliminate inefficiencies, and optimise utilization of resources.
The reforms would lay the foundation for “unprecedented” advancements in defense preparedness and ensure India’s security and sovereignty amid challenges of the 21st century, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said.
The defense ministry’s aim on theater commands assumes significance as it virtually indicated a resolve to unveil the ambitious reform measure in 2025. Under the theaterization model, the government seeks to integrate the capabilities of the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy and optimally utilise their resources for wars and operations.
As per the theaterization plan, each of the theatre commands will have units of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force, and all of them will work as a single entity looking after security challenges in a specified geographical territory.
At present, the Army, Navy, and Air Force have separate commands. The decision on observing 2025 as the 'year of reforms' and the broad objectives under it were finalized at a high-level meeting chaired by Singh. It was attended by all the secretaries of the defense ministry.
One of the nine points listed by the ministry following the deliberations was to take initiative to instil a “sense of pride” in Indian culture and ideas, fostering confidence in achieving global standards through indigenous capabilities, while imbibing best practices from modern militaries that suit the nation’s conditions.
“The year of reforms will be a momentous step in the modernisation journey of the armed forces,” Singh said.
According to the defense ministry, the focus in 2025 will also be on new domains such as cyber and space and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, hypersonics, and robotics. The reforms would aim at transforming the armed forces into a technologically advanced combat-ready force capable of multi-domain integrated operations, the ministry added.
