Joint Training Doctrine Will Enable Armed Forces To Fight Future Wars More Effectively

If India is going to fight a war someday, the war is going to be fought by the three armed forces (Army, Navy and Air Force) together and therefore integration and synergy amongst them is a must.

Taking forward this approach of integration, the Indian Armed Forces on Tuesday released a joint training doctrine, a document that is aimed at enhancing efficiency and optimum utilisation of resources.

Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba released this comprehensive document on ‘Joint Training Doctrine Indian Armed Forces – 2017’ in the capital.

The Chief of the Army Staff General Bipin Rawat, Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa and Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee Lt Gen Satish Dua were also present on the occasion.

Prepared in a ‘collegiate manner’ involving all the three service headquarters, this is for the first time in the history of the Armed Forces that such a keystone document has been formulated.

“The doctrine brings out our approach to joint training at macro-level, fundamentals, objectives, joint structures, planning, organisation amongst other aspects in existence and in use in the Armed Forces which have matured over 15 years of the existence of Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS),” said an official. He added that a lot of money can be saved by integration of logistics by the three services.

The concept includes joint training as a leverage for promoting diplomacy and civil and military interface issues. The recently concluded INDRA – 2017 and three humanitarian and disaster relief exercises held every year are some of the examples towards this end.

This 51-page training doctrine flows from the joint war doctrine for the Indian Armed Forces that was issued in April, 2017. The war doctrine had stressed the need for the Army, Navy and Air Force to plan and work together to effectively tackle any possible conflicts in future ranging from full-blown conventional wars to irregular and hybrid warfare.

Besides numerous advantages, this joint training document will also go a long way in ‘fostering initiative’ and ‘stimulating creativity’ for promoting ‘integration’ between the three services in times to come.

This key stone doctrine will basically serve as a foundation and knowledge base from which specific directives and strategies will be issued by the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee to the HQ IDS and Service HQ to consolidate proven concepts, structures, mechanisms, capacities, capabilities, etc, from time to time.