India now has its own amphibious warfare doctrine

New Delhi, Sept 09: In a major step towards providing the much-needed synergy among its three armed forces, India on Tuesday promulgated a new doctrine to effectively conduct operations in an amphibious environment involving sea, land and air dimensions.

Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman and Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta released the "Joint Doctrine for Amphibious Operations", meant to serve as a guideline on how the Armed Forces intend to plan and conduct amphibious operations involving all three dimensions of warfare.

"The doctrine is meant to serve as a guideline on how Armed Forces intend to plan and conduct these operations and achieve full synergistic effect of joint combat power," Defence Ministry sources said here.

Laying down the commonality among the tri-services for the smooth conduct of amphibious operations, the joint doctrine, which had been under preparation for the last four years, contained lessons learnt during the Army, Navy and Air Force's joint amphibious exercises conducted in 2005 and 2007.

"We have incorporated in the doctrine all the lessons learnt during the exercises since 2004 to validate some of the concepts," sources said.

Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major, Chief of Integrated Defence Staff Lt Gen Hardev Singh Lidder and other senior officials of the three forces were present during the doctrine release.

Indian defence forces have been consciously moving in the direction of integration of their operations and the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) Headquarters has, since its inception, made the necessary efforts in streamlining some of the joint aspects.

The IDS headquarters had got several aspects such as training, operations, financial planning, budgeting and overseeing the tri-service institutions of the defence forces integrated to an extent already and has promulgated a number of joint doctrines, orders and instructions in this regard.

Since the time of World War II, particularly the famous Normandy landings by the Allied Forces, modern day warfare has witnessed the crucial part played by amphibious operations.

Though India has been late in preparing a doctrine for amphibious warfare, the Indian armed forces have now readied themselves with their own doctrine that would help them in taking the battle to enemy shores, literally.

The two amphibious exercises carried out by Army, Navy and Air Force helped the IDS in resolving the glitches in the concepts and incorporate them in the doctrine.

In fact, one well-planned and executed amphibious operation -- basically a tri-service operation launched from the sea by carrying soldiers and their weaponry on a ship and affecting a landing on enemy shore -- could change the course of a war.