New Delhi, 9/12: After General Bipin Rawat’s death in a helicopter crash, General M M Naravane, the Chief of Army Staff, has emerged as the frontrunner for the post of Chief of Defence Staff whom the government will expect to carry forward military reforms taking all service chiefs on board.
General Rawat’s successor is likely to be appointed soon to carry on the military reforms initiated by him to create theatre commands and bring about jointness in the functioning of the Army, Navy and Air Force. The Ministry of Defence, of late, advanced the deadline for the Army, Navy and the Air Force to conclude internal studies and submit their reports and views on the proposal of creation of theatre commands from September 2022 to April 2022.
The differences within the military establishment over the basic structure of the theatre commands came to public domain earlier this year when the Chief of Defence Staff General Rawat said that the Indian Air Force remained a supporting arm of the ground forces just like the artillery or the engineers support the combatant arm in the Army. The then Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal (ACM) R K S Bhadauria, however, publicly argued that the Air Force had a greater role to play in any integrated theatre.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh recently stressed that inputs of all stakeholders must be taken into consideration to bring about reforms and enhance jointness in the military structure
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