THEATRE COMMAND

Subject: Defence

Context: Navy has started work to establish maritime theatre command: Admiral Karambir Singh.

Concept:

• It is a unified command in which the resources of all the services are unified under a single commander looking at a geographical theatre.
• Meaning, a single military commander, as per the requirements, will have the resources of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force to manage a security threat.

Functions of joint command:

• The commander of a joint command will have the freedom to train and equip his command.
• He will have logistics of all the services at his beckoning.
• However, the three services will retain their independent identities as well.

Joint command at present:

• There are two tri-services commands at the moment.
• The joint command at the moment, the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), is a theatre command, which is headed by the chiefs of the three services in rotation. It was created in 2001 after a Group of Ministers had given a report on national security following the Kargil War.
• The Strategic Forces Command was established in 2006 and is a functional tri-services command.