Future of ‘Americanised’ Indian Military by Gp Capt TP Srivastava

Almost all friendly nations in the world adopt the practice of mutual exchange of their uniformed personnel. These could be professional soldiers from all three services, medicos, engineers. While in some cases it is merely to join the same profession viz medicos join the medical establishments but in other cases the professional soldiers, officers in particular, join other nations professional war colleges etc. For instance Indian Military’s Defence Services Staff College course at Wellington is attended by officers of large number of nations except China and Pakistan.

Indian officers also attend similar courses of instruction in other nations. Professionally mature and competent officers imbibe the issues that will make Indian Military more responsive, if introduced. However the ‘COPY CATS’ merely spend time in these institutions, bring the documents and try to impose, not introduce, concepts of other nations without having any clue about the needs of our nation vis-à-vis another country.

One such burning issue is proposal to alter the time tested and never failed structure of Indian Military. Existing REGIONAL COMMAND structure has never failed to deliver during HOT WAR conditions. But the first CDS imposed his authority, AN IMPULSIVE DECISION, and apparently convinced the not so well informed Politico-Bureaucratic entity of the nation to tear the time tested fabric of Indian Military structure and replace it with UNWANTED THEATRE COMMAND structure.

Concerned officer, who was also the CoAS never ever proposed this as CoAS. But the moment he assumed the unwarranted mantle of CDS, his pearls of wisdom advocated Theatre Commands. Incidentally he must have learnt it while undergoing a course at USA War College.

His total lack of understanding of tri-service structure is exemplified by the fact that in Feb, 2020 he desired, rather directed, that UNIFIED AIR DEFENCE COMMAND was to become functional by 30^th June, 2020. Fortunately the powers that be realized the folly of such unimplementable proposal and rejected it.  He gave an unquestionable proof of his total lack of ignorance and professional immaturity when he said on national TV that ‘IAF IS A SUPPORT SERVICE’. Needless to say that he had no clue about employment of Air Power. However his successor, a THREE STAR GENERAL took upon himself to complete the undesirable and professionally ‘suicidal’ task of creating Theatre Commands. He failed to achieve this in his THREE YEAR tenure but somehow convinced the government to grant him extension till end of May, 2026 so that he could finish the unwanted task. Indian Military might, rather will, pay a huge price in any future full fledged war. Both these officers have failed to appreciate that the first and foremost requirement of Theatre Command structure is by the nations, which have GLOBAL AMBITIONS, viz China and USA. India’s stated national objective is; Military will ensure Territorial Integrity. This is recorded in Parliament.

Current war with Iran, which commenced on 28^th Feb, 2026 by USA in support of Israel more than 5000 km from its shores is being prosecuted by Central Command of US Military headed by Admiral Brad Cooper. Under his command and control are some of the most modern and lethal war fighting machines. When, if at all, will Indian Military be faced with such deployment few thousand km from its shores must only be known to the two CDS and those proponents, who support Theatre Command concept for Indian Military? What will be the major weapon platforms supporting such operation? In the instant case Theatre Commander is in direct contact with Secretary of War equivalent to Raksha Mantri in India. Will Indian Theatre Commander be talking to Raksha Mantri directly? In fact the correct question would be ‘will Raksha Mantri talk to Theatre Commander?

Ongoing war initiated by USA at the behest of Israel against Iran has not only resulted in unwanted destruction and loss of lives in at least ten neighbouring countries but also global upheaval due to closure of Straits of Hormuz resulting in energy crisis. In nearly three weeks of war thousands of missiles have been launched by Iran, thousands of intereceptors from various anti-missile systems launched and thousands of missions flown by most modern fighters/bombers. Counting the numbers has lost its relevance.

Final outcome, if any, will be known as and when the brutal war stops. But Trump’s option to join/assist the war appears to be impose American hegemony. Much to his surprise he must have realised that he has made a grave error of judgement and created a stuation from which he finds it well nigh impossible to extricate himself. This war will go down in history as the most asymmetric war wherein the ‘dwarf’ nearly flattened the ‘monster’.

Disruption of shipping traffic in Straits of Hormuz has created substantive issues for India. But more importantly the war has conveyed few strategically most important indicators. Hopefully our leadership will take that into account before taking any decision in haste wrt structure of Indian Military as well as induction/development of supposedly impregnable shield and few other issues of strategic significance. The significant issues that have emerged are discussed below.

Theatre Command Operations. Theatre Commands are required only and only when totally autonomous control of prosecuting the war is handed over to a Commander, who directs the operations almost independently. USA neither has land/sea borders with Iran against whom the blitzkrieg is in progress nor Israel, whom USA is supporting. Are we likely to face such situation or have we ever faced such situation in the past?

Employment/Development of Anti Missile Systems. USA and Israel have deployed the most modern and prohibitively expensive Anti Missile systems not only in Israel but also in at least eight middle east nations. Indeed a large number of Iranian missiles have been interecepted but equally significant numbers have hit the targets. Irony is that most Iranian missiles costing a few thousand dollars require interceptors costing hundreds of thousands of US Dollars. In less than three weeks USA and Israel combined have begun to ‘RATION’ the launch of interceptor missiles.

After Op Sindoor Indian pseudo military strategists went into a tizzy and overnight decided to develop a Ballistic Missile Defence System (BMDS) called SUDARSHAN CHAKRA on same lines as the nearly insane proposal by Trump to develop GOLDEN DOME BMDS. Cost of GOLDEN DOME system is projected to be around USD 185 Billion. India’s annual defence budget is USD 85 Billion.

Missile Technology. ICBMs/IRBMs transit through space. But  few variants of ordinary Iranian Missiles also transit through space and approach the target in a highly steep profile. No existing BMDS system can intercept such missiles. China’s 2000 km range Anti Shipping Missile YJ-21 follows an extremely steep profile to reach the target nearly vertically at speeds in excess of Mach 10. If the Chinese claims of Terminal Missile Guidance are true, no existing system will be able to  intercept YJ-21.

Efficacy of a Carrier Battle Group.  One of the most formidable Aircraft Carrier Lincoln has been forced to retreat beyond 1000 km from Iranian shores and is not operationally capable of keeping Straits of Hormuz open. Indeed Aircraft Carriers are the most formidable weapon platforms; but they are most vulnerable too. Gone are the days of 2^nd World War. One of our adversary Pakistan has a formidable Air Power, which will not allow Indian CBG to operate anywhere near its shores. Current on board aircraft MiG-29K will barely travel 300 km. Induction of Rafales will enhance the range to about 600 km. With such severe limitations of operational Radius of Action, which targets could/will be engaged in Pak territory? Indian CBG will be under heightened threat if the carrier operates within 12-1300 km of Pak southern coast. Chinese YJ-21 class of anti shipping missile will be able to engage Indian CBG. Future war, if any, will have the onerous task of protecting the WHITE ELEPHANTS. We must not forget that mission of PNS GHAZI in 1971 was to attack INS VIKRANT. Fortunately INS KHUKRI came into the way. With Pakistan acquiring Chinese AIP enabled submarines in near future, threat to carrier from sub-surface fleet will increase exponentially. Is there a need then to still consider development of IAC-2 as stated by present CDS few months ago?

Indian Options. In view of global turmoil India’s options are as follows;

·        Either cancel the proposal of Theatre Commands or at least put it on hold until global warmongering stops/reduces. Do not (r) not alter the structure of Indian Military at such crucial time. In times of global instability threat to India from Pakistan duly assisted by China has increased many fold. Any new operational structure will take time of few years to stabilize, hence may, rather will, not deliver what is needed.

·        Cancel the proposal of building IAC-2, an operational and financial liability.

·        Cancel development of Sudarshan Chakra as a BMDS. Instead invest heavily in developing the anti missile systems for LOCAL AREA DEFENCE. Remember American STARWARS worked as economic weapon, which was one of the reasons of disintegration of erstwhile USSR. Also need to learn lesson from China; China has not invested in developing a BMDS in spite of having financial and technological muscle. Mythological SUDARSHAN CHAKRA looks good only in TV serials.

        India does not need a CDS. Merely look at what this appointment has delivered in six years of its existence. Do not (r) not denigrate/lower the status of Service Chiefs because it is they and they alone, who will ensure favourable conflict termination situation, if and when we have to face another war. More than five decades of peace has been ensured by these three men. Kargil and Op Sindoor were sectoral events. Presence of CDS will create more confusion than resolve the issues under hot war conditions. But should your government insist on having a CDS, please appoint a former SERVICE CHIEF and not a THREE STAR OFFICER. Merely issuing a notification does not result in a THREE STAR officer learning what one learns as SERVICE CHIEF.

·        Exponential increase in submarine fleet, both conventional AIP enabled and nuclear submarine must be our top priority.

·        Induction of 114 modern fighters must be fast tracked on G2G format.

·        Let Indian Military retain its much needed Regional Command structure and not ‘Americanise’ it. America has never won a war with its Theatre Commands. Indian Military has never lost a war, 1962 included, which was lost by Politico-Bureaucratic apathy. By the way why don’t you release HENDERSEN-BHAGAT report of 1962 debacle? It is 64 years and counting.