This has allowed Navy the flexibility to import the latest weaponry like SSMs, SAMs from the best supplier and their retro-fitment to keep its fleet modern. The expertise evolved over the last four decades ensured integration of all weapons and sensors at a digital level so much so that today Navy boasts of technical prowess to interface any weapon system sourced from wherever in the world. This activity led to the advances in the digitalisation onboard warships, necessitated by the need to operationalise the imported weapon systems with the other indigenous sub-systems onboard indigenous warship. Further, the equipment to be outfitted on these ships too is selected by the Navy, thus establishing a right synergy between the end User and the shipyard. Remarkably, these warships are designed by Indian Navy itself for one of the shipyards to build. India too has built and commissioned its own modern submarines at MDL. India is one of the few nations in the world who are building their Aircraft carrier indigenously, with Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC)in the process of the last leg of construction at CSL. Over the last few decades, the Indian Navy has achieved self-reliance in the Naval shipbuilding industry, with multiple Public sector shipyards like MDL, GRSE, CSL, GSL supporting this indigenisation effort. The inter-services Interoperability and Inter-changeability are likely to be the enablers here. With the transition to Theatre level command structure, Netcentric Warfare paradigm shall be the basis of operations, and technology shall be playing an important aspect to bring jointness in the multi-services organisation. Each of the service arms has its own ethos and traditions. Traditionally, Indian Armed Forces have been a well established Rank Based formation with a rigid information flow matrix. The Indian Armed Forces Joint Doctrine of 2017 is the basis of the MTC Roles and Responsibilities. INS Kadamba at Karwar shall house the C-in-C headquarter for MTC. The Chief of Naval Staff shall be part of Chiefs of Staff Committee headed by CDS and shall hold more of an administrative role. Over the last few decades, Indian Navy has achieved self-reliance in the Naval ship building industry, with multiple Public sector shipyards like MDL, GRSE, CSL, GSL supporting this indigenisation effort.Īs this transformation is being seen as a functional re-deployment of resources for an efficient Command and Control, there are no additional billets for manpower or additional budget allocation specifically for MTC being considered. The C-in-C of the Theatre level Command shall be reporting to the CDS through the Chiefs of Staff Committee. It is planned to place the IAF and Army troops into two verticals, each headed by a two-star level officer from IAF and Army.

Army’s amphibious brigades, located at Port Blair and Thiruvananthapuram and IAF’s Jaguars based at Jamnagar and Su-30MKIs/Tejas based at Thanjavur shall be part of the Maritime Theatre Command. The Naval and Coast Guard resources shall be operating under the C-in-C along with the maritime units of IAF and the Army. The MTC shall be headed by a Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the rank of Vice-Admiral. Western, Eastern Naval commands (both being an Operational Command) and Southern command (Training Command)shall be seeing a re-alignment of resources for Theatre level operations. The Indian Navy’spresent disposition into three commands viz. In due course, along with the MTC, four additional Theatre Level Commands under the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) are being evolved, one being the Air Defence Theatre Command and other three commands for land forces. The year 2021 will see the start of a historical transformation of the Indian Navy to be a Maritime Theatre Command (MTC), with IAF’s maritime squadrons and Army’s Amphibious units restructured to achieve an operational edge.

Navy salute