India's Army, Air Force and Navy to soon be under single leadership command

The government has made the provision as part of its policy to ensure operational synergies among the three services, official sources have said.

New Delhi: The commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) will have powers to take up cases of indiscipline and other issues involving personnel of Army, IAF and Navy deployed there, unlike earlier when they were sent to service headquarters of the respective forces.

The government has made the provision as part of its policy to ensure operational synergies among the three services, official sources said.

The ANC is India's first tri-services command which was set up around 16 years ago to effectively deal with various external security challenges facing the country.

Earlier, cases of indiscipline and other related matters were sent to service headquarters of the respective forces.

The commander-in-chief of the ANC is a naval officer and the government has now cleared implementation of a long-pending move to empower him to take up cases of indiscipline and certain other issues relating to the personnel deployed at the command, official sources said.

In a significant move, a "joint doctrine" providing for deeper operational coordination among the army, navy and air force was unveiled in April last year with an aim to coherently deal with all possible security threats facing India including conventional and proxy wars.

However, no concrete steps to implement it have been taken so far.

The government is yet to take a decision on long-pending proposal to have a chief of defence staff (CDS) or a permanent chairman of the chiefs of staff committee (CoSC) to bring coordination among the three services. It was considered to be one of the most key reform measures to bolster operational capabilities of the three services.