National Defence Academy (NDA): Jointness Well Begun is not Half Done

National Defence Academy [NDA] enters the 75th year of establishment of the Joint Services Wing. The concept of the NDA was borne out of the experience of the Second World War. As the NDA website amplifies, “Six years of fierce combat had emphatically underlined the need for 'Jointness' in modern warfare. It was believed then and correctly so that it is primarily  element of synergy that provides  significant asymmetric edge in a conflict situation”.

Indeed the foundation of jointness and synergy was to be laid by training of young men in the impressionable age from 16 to 20 under the same alma mater.

The aim was virtual indoctrination for a commitment to jointness before they enter their services institutions for further training prior to joining the Army, Navy and the Air Force.

“Joint training at the National Defence Academy focuses on inter-service cooperation for synchronization of all components of military power to achieve a common military aim. It is characterised by trust and confidence, mutual respect for each other's capability, and healthy competition,” says the NDA Website.

The objective is once having imbibed the spirit of jointness there will be sustained synergy to create integrated and joint forces in the future.

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan himself a product of the NDA declared that jointness and integration among the three services (the army, navy and air force) is needed greater than ever before because of the changing nature and character of the war delivering a lecture on the topic 'forging joint military leadership' during the platinum jubilee celebrations of the National Defence Academy (NDA) at Khadkwasla as per a Times of India report. "It was on the line of the basic bedrock of the academy," he added.

General Chauhan, from the 58th course of the NDA, said, "I joined the NDA 46 years ago as a 16-year-old boy straight from school who had no military background. We watched the film 'Cradle of Leadership' then. After 46 years, when I look back, I think the NDA is a bit more just than a 'cradle of leadership.' It is more than just an academy for the military cadets."

Has the NDA achieved the lofty ideals of joiintness and integration.

The ongoing debate over theaterisation indicates that the process appears to be in an interminable spin with shuffling of the case between the services even as the Chief of the Defence Staff who is charged for implementing the proposal in an eternal quandary to build the consensus.

Importantly the cadets in the NDA seem to be aware of the process and the delays and raised a question on the delays.

Times of India reports that former Navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh said, "We got ourselves to blame for not completing the theaterisation of the defence forces over the decades."

Indeed, the present generation of higher commanders in the armed forces with a majority of them from the haloed institution of the National Defence Academy have much to answer for the delays in creating theatre commands.

Well begun is not half done!