Rajnath Singh Presides over the 1st Joint Commanders’ Conference

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh presided over the first Joint Commander’s Conference of the Armed Forces at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, on 5 September. The two day first Joint Commander’s Conference was held in Lucknow on 4- 5 September 2024 to discuss the various issues of the armed forces and integration of the three armed forces and the integrated theatre command.

The defence minister also launched e-Museum and e-Granthalaya applications and one book titled ‘Colonial Practices and the Armed Forces - A Review’.

Who attended the Joint Commander’s Conference?

The first  Joint Commanders’ Conference was attended by Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari, Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane. 

Theme of the 1st Joint Commanders’ Conference 

The theme of the Joint Commander’s Conference was “Sashakt aur Surakshit Bharat: Transforming Armed Forces,”

The theme reflects the commitment of the Indian government to strengthen and modernise India’s defence capabilities.

Focus of the 1st Joint Commander’s Conference 

The focus of the first Joint Commander’s Conference  was on discussing current and future challenges to Indian security and how to

• develop the future capability of the Indian armed forces,
• build an organisational structure for a joint and integrated theatre command structure,
• push to indigenisation and indigenous technological developments, including in the field of robotics and Artificial intelligence-enabled autonomous weapon systems.

What is an Integrated Theater Command?

Theatre in the military refers to a specific location on air, land, or sea that could be a possible future area of conflict.

The 2015  Lt. Gen (Retd) DB Shekatkar committee recommended setting up an integrated tri-service command.

Integrated command means the personnel of the Indian Air Force, Indian Navy, and Indian Army will work under a single command. This is expected to enable the efficient use of military resources and enhance the war-fighting capacity of the Indian Armed Forces.

At present, there are separate commands of the Army, Air Force, and Navy.

There are only two integrated commands in India -Andaman and Nicobar Command and the Strategic Forces Command, which is in charge of the country's nuclear weapons, function as tri-services commands.