India plans to unify special forces

India's army, navy and air force special forces (SF) are to be unified in one rapid-action force under a new joint operations doctrine that emphasises the SF's role as "potent force multipliers" in future conflicts.

The classified document, prepared by the integrated defence staff (IDS), reportedly stresses the "jointness" of India's SF units in collective operations behind enemy lines.

"All future wars or conflicts will demand the SF play an increasingly dominant role at all levels of war, be it strategic, operational or tactical," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement about the new doctrine.

The IDS document is believed to recommend the unification of all three SF units into a rapid action force that would be trained and armed by Israel and networked through C4I systems.

For the successful conduct of joint SF operations, the doctrine reportedly stresses the essentials of actionable intelligence backed by attack helicopters, naval and artillery support and the delivery of precision-guided munitions.

However, senior military sources said "intra-service biases and turf battles", especially in the army, had "impaired" the employment perspective and mission capabilities of its 5,000-strong SF force. 188 of 361 words