Jointness has to extend beyond land, sea and air into space, cyber and cognitive domains. Discuss the institutional and doctrinal steps India has taken and the challenges in creating theatre commands.

HQ Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS) marked its Silver Jubilee on 01 October 2026 under the theme "Future readiness through jointness & Integration". The occasion underlines that modern war spans six domains: land, sea, air, space, cyber and cognitive [1]. India has built the institutions and doctrines for this, but theatre commands, the end-goal of jointness, are still unfinished.

Institutional Steps

• HQ IDS (2001): raised after Kargil as the apex tri-service body. It runs the Joint Commanders' Conference, the CORE Programme and Ran Samwad [1].
• CDS and DMA (2019): the CDS is Permanent Chairman, COSC, Principal Military Adviser to the Raksha Mantri and Secretary, Department of Military Affairs [2].
• Legal backbone: the Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Act, 2023 lets heads of joint bodies, such as the Andaman and Nicobar Command and the Defence Space Agency, command personnel of all three Services [3].
• Joint logistics: three Joint Logistic Nodes at Mumbai, Guwahati and Port Blair [2].

Doctrinal Steps

• Three joint doctrines were in place by 2021. Four more (Capstone, Space, Cyber, ISR) were at an advanced stage [2].
• New domains: HQ IDS prepares the forces for cyber, space and AI with academia and industry. It also builds joint capability in the cognitive domain [1].

Challenges in Creating Theatre Commands

• Advisory CDS: the CDS has no military command over the Service Chiefs [4], so reform depends on the Chiefs agreeing.
• Service turf: a theatre needs each Service to place its units under a commander from another Service.
• Slow progress: the roadmap was "under deliberation" in 2021 [2]. In 2022–23 the Standing Committee on Defence asked for the "creases" to be ironed out expeditiously [5]. In 2025–26 the forces were still "moving towards" theatre commands [6].
• Weak foundations: by 2021, joint training had begun in only 5 of 10 chosen subjects, and the new-domain doctrines were still pending [2].
• Split policy: defence policy stays with the Department of Defence. The DMA handles only military affairs [2].

India has moved from coordination to integration in planning, doctrine and law, but structural jointness still lags. Three steps would complete the Kargil Review Committee's vision of reformed higher defence management [2]: a time-bound theatre roadmap reported to Parliament, rules notified under the 2023 Act, and finished space and cyber doctrines. Together they would make the forces future-ready across all six domains.