IAF Chief Cautions Against Rushing in for Theatre Commands

Indian Air Force Chief, Air Chief Marshal A P Singh on August 26 cautioned against rushing the rollout of theatre commands comparing the model to that adopted by the United States. He was speaking at RAN SAMWAD, a first-of-its-kind Tri-service seminar on war, warfare and warfighting, at the Army War College in Dr Ambedkar Nagar, Madhya Pradesh on August 27, 2025. The Air Chief who has been lauded for the performance of the IAF in Operation Sindoor cautioned against a hasty decision and sought a joint planning and coordination centre in Delhi, placed under the Chiefs of Staff Committee, to issue directions jointly saying, "I personally feel that having a joint planning and coordination centre in Delhi is what is required."

Responding to questions on the proposed theatre commands, Singh said, "yes, we can start with this first, implement it and see how it pans out. If we need any more structure, we can think about it. But disrupting everything and making one structure now at this time, I do not think it is a very good idea." "I feel having joint planning and coordination at the apex level is what is required. If directions go from it, things will work out. We don't actually need another structure at the lower level," Singh added.

Earlier speaking at the ACM L M Katre memorial lecture in Bengaluru, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh had praised coordination among the Army, Navy and Air Force and role of the Chief of the Defence Staff during Operation Sindoor. In the past as well the IAF has highlighted smooth conduct of operations in 1971 and 1999 as an argument against Theatre Commands as the current process was working well. Why fix what is not broken appears to be the argument.

At Ran Samwad giving an alternative, the Air Chief said, "centrally planned" decisions could still be executed in a decentralised framework, which in his view "will work out the best."  Cautioning against following a foreign model such as the United States, Singh said,  "Everybody has their own requirements. We need to think about what we need there, and then only we should go about it.  Otherwise, we will go wrong," he said. "We should not just come under any pressure and say we have to implement it now. Somehow, we have to do it. It should not be done this way. I think we can stand our ground and discuss things," he added. 

The Air Force chief also underlined the need to focus on preparing for tomorrow's wars, where clarity in the chain of command will be critical. "You cannot have a theatre commander sitting somewhere... now whom they talk to, where do they get directions from. Phones are available but generally that does not work like that," he said. 

The government's proposed theaterisation model is admittedly still under discussion and envisages three to four operational theatre commands in the place of 17 separate single service commands that are in place today.

Creation of the theatre commands is envisaged for jointness and synergy as well as economy. However, the Indian Air Force has been sceptical of Theatre Commands particularly due to depletion of resources, fielding 29 squadrons against an envisaged requirement of 42.5. under these circumstances centralised control of air assets has been argued to be more effective.

Not just the United States but China's People's Liberation Army has adopted theatre commands suiting the operational requirements. There is no clarity on the model that the Indian Armed Forces are adopting for establishing theatre commands, but the Air Chiefs remarks at Ran Samwad will set back the process.