Cavalier India Defence Training Academy

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort this August 15, a big announcement on restructuring India’s defence forces is likely. Top sources, in the know of things, say that two theatre commands — the Maritime Command and the Air Defence Command — will be operational by August 15. The Air Defence Command will be based out of Allahabad and will control air assets of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Army and Navy. It will be responsible for protecting military assets from airborne enemies and will be commanded by a three-star officer of the IAF. The Maritime Command will be based out of Karwar and will be responsible for the security of the Indian Ocean region. It will be commanded by a three-star officer of the Indian Navy. Apart from these two theatre commands, India will get three or four integrated commands to secure the Pakistan and China fronts. Sources said there could be two theatre commands on the China front which in turn will report to ...

The government has now formally approved the first set of joint structures to handle logistics in the 15-lakh strong armed forces , in a step towards injecting some desperately- required integration among the three Services and the eventual creation of unified theatre commands.   L to R - Chiefs of IAF, Indian Army and Indian Navy | Representative image The first three joint logistics nodes (JLNs) at Mumbai, Guwahati and Port Blair will handle small arms ammunition, rations, FOL (fuels, oils and lubricants), general stores, civil-hired transport, aviation clothing, spares and engineering support for the Army, Navy and IAF to ensure cost-effectiveness in operations. “These three experimental JLNs were functioning in an ad hoc manner till now. Now, the entire arrangement, structure and mandate has been formalized through the recent government sanction letter (GSL) approved by the President,” said a senior officer on Tuesday.  Similar nodes will come up in other parts of the cou...