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New Delhi: A fresh row broke out Friday between Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Bipin Rawat and Air Chief Marshal (ACM) R.K.S. Bhadauria over the role of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the planned theatresisation.
While the CDS labeled the IAF as a supporting arm to the ground forces — likening it to the role of artillery and engineers in the Army, the IAF chief said air power has a huge role to play in any of the integrated battle areas and is not an issue of support alone.
ACM Bhadauria also said that the IAF was supportive of the integrated theatre command, but underlined that it is important to “get it right” because it will have an impact on war fighting.
These contrasting statements by two of the most senior Indian military officers came in the backdrop of differences within the Services on the basic structure of theatres, which aim to bring in a joint and integrated approach to war fighting.
The government has directed the Services and the CDS to fine tune the theatre command concept.
The latest row broke out during an online seminar organised by think-tank Global Counter Terrorism Council.
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What CDS said on IAF role
Speaking first, Gen Rawat outlined the concept of theatres and stressed their need.
Asked about reservations expressed by the IAF, which favours one theatre for the entire country instead of several, Gen Rawat said the entire air space of the nation will be looked after by one air defence command.
“We are creating one air defence command which will look after the entire nation’s air space. But what we are looking at, because we have a western theatre and a northern theatre, one dealing with our northern adversary, one dealing with our western…