New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be addressing the Armed Forces Combined Commanders' Conference on Friday. The Indian armed forces are mulling the creation of three unified commands to effectively tackle security threats and challenges in the fields of space, cyberspace and special operations. The efforts are part of increasing significance being given on jointness among the three Services by the Defence Ministry and to avoid duplication of their resources.
The three Services are discussing the format of the new commands to look after space, cyberspace and special operations and are expected to raise it in the Combined Commanders' Conference, Defence officials said. Defence Minister AK Antony and Finance Minister P Chidambaram are also scheduled to address senior commanders of the three Services at the bi-annual conference.
The proposal for creation of an aerospace command has been there for the last few years but it is stuck as the three Services have not agreed over the structure of the new
formation and the force which will head it. At present, the three Services have separate space cells.
The creation of a Special Operations Command has also been recommended by a government-appointed Committee. The idea behind raising the Special Operations Command is to put the special forces of the three Services under one formation and use them for strategic roles.
The need for a separate command to tackle cyberspace has been felt because of the recent surge in attacks on government and military networks by hacker groups and non-state actors. At present, the armed forces have three tri-services commands in place which are commanded by the three armed forces in rotation. At the Defence Ministry-level, the tri-services Integrated Defence Staff headquarters controls Strategic Forces Command and Andaman and Nicobar Command in Port Blair.
With Additional Inputs from PTI
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