Indian Air Force's Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit delivers the opening address during the 'Ran Samwad 2026', in Bengaluru | Photo Credit: SHAILENDRA BHOJAK

Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, on Thursday announced that more than 90 percent of the work on the theaterisation of the Indian Armed Forces has been completed, signaling that the much-awaited major military restructuring exercise has reached its final stage.

The transformation, expected to be announced by next month, would lead to single service commands getting subsumed into tri-services architecture, each lead by a three-star commander.

“Our move towards joint structures and theatre commands -- with planning now reported to be more than 90 per cent complete -- is a historic opportunity,” he said during his opening address at the second edition of “Ran Samwaad 2026”, which is being held at Bengaluru.

He, however, cautioned that “structures alone do not guarantee synergy. “Cultural integration is what makes structure come alive. Jointness must evolve from mere coordination to genuine unity of effort,” he advocated in his remarks at Ran Samwaad, carrying a theme “Multi-Domain Operations: An Imperative for Addressing Conventional and Irregular Threats.”

That requires transparency in information sharing, clarity of authority and -- most fundamentally -- mutual trust, he remarked, hinting at issues that would require ironing out.

He also flagged the need for command accountability and responsibility as the use of unmanned and autonomous systems’ use increases.

“Domain jointness”

Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi, who too addressed at Ran Samvaad, emphasised that Operation Sindoor demonstrated India’s progression towards “domain jointness” and described the military offensive inside Pakistani territory a “defining case study” of operational significance of integration.

“Operation Sindoor was India’s most powerful tool of progression towards domain jointness. But we need to achieve domain integration and fusion,” General Dwivedi said in his speech on “Land Forces visualisation of Multi Domain Operation (MDO).”

He also pitched for creation of an information warfare organisation and a psychological defence division following Operation Sindoor.

He said, “15 per cent of our effort was on managing the disinformation campaign.” He cautioned, however, that key challenges remain, particularly in synchronising operations across strategic, operational and tactical levels and addressing the growing prevalence of hybrid or grey-zone warfare.

“These are typically below the conventional military threshold, with the goal to exploit adversary vulnerability,” he said, adding that non-kinetic operations are increasingly taking precedence.

Published on April 9, 2026