When HT executive editor Shishir Gupta sat down with senior anchor Ayesha Verma to discuss theater command this week, his message was clear. India’s armed forces are on the verge of transformational change and the defense budget is a clear early indicator that the political leadership has decided to move forward on the path of progress.
From Kargil to CDS and Theater Command
The idea of ​​changing India’s higher defense architecture has been under consideration since the Kargil Review Committee recommended the creation of the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) in 1999. Yet it took two decades and strong political support for the position to actually be created.
On August 15, 2019, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi announced the institution of cdsBreaking years of hesitation rooted in fears about concentrating too much power in the military and reviving a “commander-in-chief” style system.
General Bipin Rawat, who was appointed as India’s first CDS, became the face of this reform effort. He openly expressed the need for a unified theater command, where the Army, Navy and Air Force would fight as a unit under one commander for a specific geographical theatre. Ultimately, this approach will prove to create a developed India, a unified India in many ways.
General Bipin Rawat’s approach was top-down and driven, but his death in a helicopter crash in the Nilgiri hills in December 2021 halted the momentum as he tried to push the system during his tenure.
His successor, General Anil Chauhan, from the same Gorkha regiment, adopted a more consensus-driven, bottom-up approach – but on the core question, there is continuity: both men see theater command as non-negotiable for the modern Indian Army.
The next formal step is a note to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for final approval.
Shishir Gupta suggested that this was likely to happen before General Chouhan leaves office, which is expected to be by 30 May 2026, thereby setting a timeline for “huge transformational changes” in India’s military posture, especially given the increasing number of geopolitical conflicts.
Political consensus, military buy-in
In the latest episode of Point Blank, Shishir Gupta outlines that the political and strategic establishments have broadly united towards reform.
Prime Minister Modi has consistently supported giving operational freedom to the armed forces, as seen in several operations since 2014, most notably during Operation Sindoor in 2025, where he is said to have told commanders to “do what you have to do” rather than micromanaging from the top.
On the structural question of theater command, the signals are equally clear.
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the concept in principle. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has examined the proposals. The three service chiefs – General Manoj Pandey, Air Chief Marshal VR Choudhary and Admiral R. Hari Kumar – CDS along with General Chauhan, all have apparently signed a document supporting the theater command.
At the Joint Commanders’ Conference in Kolkata in September, the Prime Minister reportedly gave clear instructions that commands should be created.
Why Theater Command, and why now
At the center of the debate is India’s changing place in the world.
Economically, India is already the fourth largest power after the US, China and Germany, and is poised to become number three, a message the central government re-emphasised in the Union Budget speech delivered by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1.
Shishir Gupta said that militarily also India is at fourth position after America, Russia and China.
These three countries, which are ahead of India in military terms, already operate theater commands. China has five theater commands, the US and Russia also run their forces through theater structures. Gupta argued that India could not allow its three services to operate in “separate silos”, each with its own networks, doctrines and “empires”, to operate at that level.
Historically, the Army, Navy, and Air Force maintained separate communications channels and intelligence systems. If the Army required air support during an operation, requests would reach service headquarters and then back up the chain, creating dangerous time lag.
Under General Chauhan, an integrated communications backbone has been established, allowing commanders of the three services to talk directly.
Gupta pointed to Operation Sindoor as a glimpse of the future: for the first time, the three service chiefs and the CDS sat together in a room as Indian forces attacked terrorist camps in response to the Pahalgam massacre.
The result, he says, was a faster, more accurate response – exactly the kind of jointness meant to institutionalize theater command. Only institutional cohesion among the forces can bring greater benefits and prove to be a strong shield against India’s enemies.
What will India’s theater map look like?
While there is general consensus that theater commands are coming, their exact number and size is under debate. Various models have been discussed, including:
- Western theater focused on Pakistan;
- The Eastern or Central theater focuses on China; and a
- maritime theater
The question under discussion is where exactly a separate Northern Command should go, given its unique challenge of facing both Pakistan to the west and China to the east on disputed borders.
The second point of discussion is: Should the Triservices currently operating in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands come under the Eastern or Maritime Theater Command since the major competitor in the region is going to be China?
At present, the command of all three armies operates under the command of CDS General Anil Chauhan.
Gupta said talks have now focused on three clear theater commands: a West Theater Command, an East Theater Command and a Maritime Theater Command.
Maritime command is particularly important: India has a 7,000 km long coastline and 1,062 islands, as well as a theoretical need to be able to respond to crises in the Indian Ocean region, from the Maldives and Sri Lanka to Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mauritius and Seychelles.
first major indicator budget
If policy intent is one pillar, money is the other.
For Gupta, the defense budget is the first hard indicator that the government is serious about creating and maintaining theater commands.
There has been a significant jump in defense expenditure after Operation Sindoor.
The Defense Ministry estimated a 20 percent increase in capital expenditure; The government approved 22 percent. Within that, the modernization budget – the subset that pays for new platforms and technologies – was increased even further to 24 percent.
It’s not just about buying more hardware. It is directly linked to theater command in two ways:
- creating the infrastructure necessary for integrated command across land, sea, air, cyber and space; And
- To acquire sufficient assets so that they can be effectively distributed among the three theater commands without leaving significant gaps.
Gupta said the government has sent another important signal, that when it comes to the armed forces, there are “no holds barred” as long as the spending contributes to projecting dominance and power across Asia. Big plans include 114 Rafale fighter aircraft, long-range stand-off missiles, high-altitude long-endurance drones, medium altitude long-endurance drones and armed unmanned systems – with emphasis on making these platforms in India.
Beyond the colonial template
The basis of this entire transformation is a comprehensive mindset change.
The legacy model of the Indian Army was largely inherited from the British Raj, with separate service jagirs and a fragmented approach to planning and operations. Gupta argued that this colonial template is no longer valid for a country that wants a seat at the top table of global power.
The emerging structure – with a key military advisor in the CDS, integrated theater commands, integrated communications, joint intelligence and cyber framework and a rapidly growing modernization budget – aims to give India not just more military power, but more useful, responsive and coherent power.
In Gupta’s telling, the message from the political leadership is simple: the stage is set for theater commands, money is being put on the table, and now the time has come for the CDS and the services to provide a military architecture equal to India’s ambitions.
