‘Jointness' in the Armed Forces

An Assessment

Abstract

Jointness is a military term, as explained by the Collins Dictionary, which refers to “the cooperation and integration of different branches of the military”. India has the fourth largest military in the world and each operates independently. The cooperation among the three Services is according to the priorities as visualised by each Service, with coordination by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). In April 2017, the three Service Chiefs released the latest Joint Doctrine for the Indian armed forces. It is important to note that the first doctrine was written in 2006 and was a classified version that was not released to the public. The current document has very little depth and would not be able to integrate the various branches of the Indian armed forces. There would be no joint response to a military situation. Currently, there are more than 32 countries with joint Services set-ups.