Air Force Chief Says Military Integration Must Fit India's Needs

Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal A. P. Singh stated that the Indian Air Force does not view the military theaterisation plan as a way to permanently divide fighter assets by geography. Speaking on Sunday, October 25, 2026, he argued that any new structure must match India's specific security needs rather than copying foreign models.

Core Principles And Past Operations

The Air Chief Marshal said the main rule for theaterisation should be centralised control where needed and decentralised execution where appropriate. He noted that future wars will span multiple domains and require the Army, Navy, and Air Force to plan and operate much more closely than before. He pointed to Operation Sindoor as an example, where a joint setup created by the Chief of Defence Staff and the three service chiefs allowed fast and centralised movement of critical resources.

Phased Implementation

Air Chief Marshal Singh warned against trying to guess the future battlefield with too much certainty, noting that upcoming conflicts will likely be faster and more network-dependent. He urged that a change of this scale happen in phases to protect operational readiness. The theaterisation plan, first announced in 2019 as a major military reform, aims to combine the three services into three main commands in Lucknow, Jaipur, and Thiruvananthapuram, though progress has slowed due to differing views among the services.

Context

The theaterisation plan is India's biggest military reform since Independence, aimed at grouping the Army, Navy, and Air Force under unified commands for better teamwork during operations. Integrating the armed forces requires balancing different views from each service, especially regarding how to share and deploy air power across regions.