Media is abuzz with news of Chinese announcement of a major military overhaul by putting her armed forces under a joint operational military command to build it into “an elite combat force” by 2020, as put by President Xi Jinping. This will also involve regrouping China’s existing seven military regions into four strategic zones. The aim is to make the Chinese military more agile and combat-ready, and capable of taking the battle to its adversaries far beyond its borders and shores.

Till now, responsibility for covering the 4,057-km-long line of actual control (LAC) was with two Chinese Military Regions—Chengdu Military Region to the east and Lanzhou Military Region for balance LAC. However, the restructuring announced, the entire LAC with India (Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh) will now be looked after by a new entity called ‘West Zone’. It is being said that such changes in Chinese military are being brought along the pattern of US military. Not that the PLA was neglected or antiquated earlier. Chinese interest in Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) and the structure of future US armed forces was always strong and being incorporated into the Chinese strategic military doctrine. Their interest in the RMA theory and practice was accelerated due to the dramatic and speedy US victory over Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War wherein, US dominance was achieved through precision weaponry, satellites and superior information and communications technology. The power of technological advances coupled with matching strategy and concepts, organisations and training was fully apparent. This was a catalyst for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to get going on the path to ‘Informization’. In China, change was actually ushered in by Jiang Zemin and its implementation overseen by the Central Military Commission and the Chief of General Staff of the PLA.

However, under Xi Jinping, the Chinese military machine has come into greater prominence, as China has already commenced on a more aggressive path, flexing her muscles particularly in the Indo-Pacific. With three PLA Generals forming part of the powerful Politburo, the PLA has much more say. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) already exercised tight control over the PLA with political commissars posted at every unit level, reporting directly to the party and wielding much more power than unit commanders. The Chinese military has been preparing to fight at multiple fronts simultaneously for a long time. The new restructuring will synergise the military still better in focusing on conflict.

The Indian military requires organisational changes that are necessary to give an impetus to synergising the armed forces towards integration and RMA. These changes have to be driven from the top leadership of the country. In the United States the catalyst for the transformation process commenced with former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld; the US Department of Defense created US Joint Forces Command as the transformation laboratory of the US military to force the US armed forces into jointness. The Goldwater-Nichols Act brought about revolutionary changes in the US armed forces, accelerating synergy and boosting RMA. In Germany the transformation process was initiated by the Berlin Decree which aimed to integrate the armed forces ensuring reaping full benefits of ongoing technological advancements.

The German Chief of the Defence Forces oversees the transformation of the armed forces. In India, even a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), though recommended by the Kargil Review Committee, has yet to be appointed. A successful RMA also requires key bureaucracies to possess certain institutional characteristics that enable them to direct technological advances to dramatically improve military efficiency and efficacy. Instead of a CDS, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is reportedly pushing for a permanent Chairman COSC with no operational powers, which will be a puppet appointment with the power of arbitration continuing with the bureaucrats of MoD that have little professional military knowledge. The Andaman & Nicobar Command (ANC) is largely toothless while China is developing ports in the Indian Ocean region (IOR) with strategic aims. Gwadar and Hambantota will accommodate large submarines. Development of bases in outlying islands of Seychelles under pretext of ‘refuelling facilities’ and now in Djibouti as ‘logistic base’ spans the African coast as well. The existing 17 commands of the three Services of the Indian military need to be reorganised into bi-Service and tri-Service Integrated Theatre Commands (ITCs) and Integrated Functional Commands (IFCs).

Detailed studies for such reorganisation were undertaken more than five years back by HQ IDS, examined at DGMO and equivalent level and considered operationally vital. But such organisation cannot take place without a CDS and without the MoD restructured into a Department of Defence (DoD) manned by military professionals. China’s ‘West Zone’ will now look after the entire LAC but even earlier her claims in the Western and Central Sectors along the LAC were being addressed by one Chengdu Military Region, while we have three Commands responsible for the same area—Northern, Western and Central—with attenuated problems. China’s West Zone will have all forces deployed on the LAC under command. We don’t even follow the concept of ‘one border, one force’. To top this, PMF are deployed in sensitive areas and not placed under the command of the Army. The fact is that during the decade-long tenure of A.K. Antony as Defence Minister, defence of India remained defunct. Not much changes have occurred under the new government other than the call for ‘Make in India’, which itself has yet to take off as far as the defence sector is concerned. There is no move towards restructuring at all.

The views expressed herein are the personal views of the author