Originally published : https://www.eurasiareview.com/24102025-single-point-orders-joint-fight-how-june-2025-reform-reshapes-indias-theatre-command-reality-analysis/
With the CDS now empowered to issue Joint Instructions and Orders, the June 2025 reform ends ambiguity over who commands India’s warfighting machine. But for the Army, jointness must still serve the soldier on the ground.
When Defence Minister Rajnath Singh signed the June 24–25, 2025 order empowering the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) to issue Joint Instructions and Orders across the three Services, it marked a watershed in India’s military reform journey.
For the first time since the CDS position was established in 2020, the authority to issue operationally binding joint directives has been unambiguously vested in one office.
The decision, routed through the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), turns the long-promised “jointness” into an actionable chain-of-command reality.
The reform, though bureaucratic on paper, has deep tactical implications, particularly for the Indian Army, which remains the lead service in terms of land-based operations, logistics, and personnel strength.
The CDS’s new powers redefine how land warfare will be planned and executed in a joint environment, where air and naval components are integrated from the first move, not added as afterthoughts.
From Coordination to Command
Until now, the CDS could recommend or coordinate inter-Service actions, but each Service Chief retained primacy over operational orders within their domain.
This arrangement often created a grey zone during crises, as seen during Galwan (2020) or Balakot (2019), where coordination depended on goodwill rather than command.
The June 2025 reform eliminates this ambiguity. The CDS, acting through the DMA, can now issue Joint Instructions (strategic-level guidance) and Joint Orders (operational-level directives) that are binding across the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
It establishes a single-point authority for joint planning, deployment, and execution, aligning India’s structure closer to models used by the US Joint Chiefs or UK Defence Staff, but still retaining national peculiarities, such as Service Chiefs’ control over force preparation and training.
In his May 2025 book “Ready, Relevant and Resurgent,” General Anil Chauhan anticipated this very reform. He argued that “jointness must move from cooperation to command,” noting that India’s traditional compartmentalisation between Services was “a peacetime comfort incompatible with wartime urgency.” The new order reflects that philosophy in administrative form.
What Changes for the Army
For the Indian Army, which anchors the majority of India’s combat formations and operates in both continental and sub-conventional theatres, the shift is both structural and cultural.
Land Commands and Theatre Structures: While formal Integrated Theatre Commands (ITCs) are yet to be notified, the CDS now possesses the authority to issue orders that cut across Service silos.
This means that existing Army Commands, particularly Northern, Eastern, and Western, must plan with explicit inter-Service input. The future Land Theatre Command, likely centred around these geographies, will no longer operate as an Army-dominant formation but as a joint warfighting unit, responsive to CDS-issued directives.
Logistics and Sustainment: The Army’s vast logistics chain from the ASC and AOC to the E-in-C Branch will now align with a joint logistics framework.
The CDS’s office is pushing for the integration of Joint Logistics Nodes (JLNs) and shared infrastructure under DMA supervision. The June 2025 empowerment allows the CDS to issue orders for resource prioritisation, such as fuel, transport, and ammunition, based on joint mission needs, not Service quotas.
Operational Accountability: The Army remains the lead responder to land threats, especially along the LAC and LoC. However, with joint directives in place, accountability for integrated outcomes — say, a cross-domain operation combining ISR, firepower, and manoeuvre — will be collective, not Service-specific.
This dilutes exclusive “ownership” of success or failure, but also strengthens unity of effort under a national-level commander.
The Joint Air Defence Imperative
A tangible example of the new command synergy is the ongoing Joint Air Defence Centre (JADC) initiative, which seeks to integrate the Army’s Akashteer network with the IAF’s IACCS (Integrated Air Command and Control System).
Under the CDS’s new authority, such cross-domain integration can be accelerated through joint orders, bypassing inter-Service procedural friction.
The CDS’s ability to issue operational instructions means the Army’s air defence assets, including missile groups and sensor networks, will function as nodes within a unified national grid — not as isolated Service assets.
This not only enhances efficiency but also reflects the reform’s intent: the joint fight must begin before the first missile is launched.
Between Reform and Reality
Despite the significance of the reform, structures remain unnotified. The CDS himself has acknowledged “dissonance” among Services regarding command contours and reporting chains.
The Army’s institutional inertia, honed through decades of independent command, will take time to align with the new joint order. The Navy’s expeditionary focus and the IAF’s domain-centric planning further complicate integration.
Therefore, the reform’s success hinges not just on command power but on cultural adaptation. The Army, being the most manpower-intensive Service, must translate jointness into tactical coherence, ensuring that every directive from the top ultimately benefits “the soldier on the ground.”
The Soldier Still Matters Most
Empowering the CDS to issue single-point orders is a necessary step toward a modern, joint military. But unless those orders simplify decision-making for battalion commanders in the field, enabling faster fire support, integrated logistics, and clear accountability, jointness will remain a paper construct.
The June 2025 reform gives India a unified warfighting command structure. For the Indian Army, it signals both challenge and opportunity to evolve from being the largest Service to becoming the core integrator of joint power.
And as General Chauhan himself wrote, “The measure of reform is not in the order issued from Delhi, but in the clarity it delivers to a soldier facing the enemy.”
