NEW DELHI: In the run-up to the creation of two new unified commands in the country this year, a third joint logistics node (JLN) of the Army, Navy and IAF was operationalized at Mumbai by chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat on Thursday.
Noting that all future wars will have to be fought by the three Services in an integrated manner, General Rawat said the successful functioning of the three JLNs (first two are at Guwahati and Port Blair) will be “important stepping stones” for opening more such nodes in different parts of the country.
“I call upon everyone to continue to strive for excellence in our endeavour to become a fully-integrated, modern and self-sufficient future-ready force. Establishment of the JLNs is a very important first step in the direction of logistics integration of our three Services,” he said.
The government had last year formally approved these first set of joint structures to handle logistics in the 15-lakh strong armed forces, in a step towards injecting some desperately-required integration and the eventual creation of tri-Service commands, as was then reported by TOI.
For starters, these JLNs will provide integrated logistics cover to the armed forces for their small arms ammunition, rations, fuel, general stores, civil hired transport, aviation clothing, spares and also engineering support in an effort to synergise operational efforts and cut costs.
The JLNs come ahead of the creation of the tri-Service “functional” Air Defence Command and the “geographical” Maritime Theatre Command this year. These will then be followed by theatre commands along the land borders with China and Pakistan for a greater integrated military punch, as part of the biggest-ever restructuring underway in the armed forces, as earlier reported by TOI.