NEW DELHI: A little over four months after India conducted deep precision strikes against Pakistan under Operation Sindoor, the govt has approved General Anil Chauhan’s extension of service as the Chief of Defence Staff and secretary of the Department of Military Affairs till May 30 next year when he turns 65. Gen Chauhan, who was commissioned in the 11 Gorkha Rifles in 1981, was appointed the country’s second CDS in Sept 2022 after his predecessor, Gen Bipin Rawat, died in a helicopter crash in Dec 2021. The appointments committee of the cabinet on Wednesday approved the extension of Gen Chauhan, who was the military advisor to national security advisor Ajit Doval before becoming the CDS, till May 2026 “or until further orders, whichever is earlier”.The move was expected since a CDS can serve till 65, unlike the Army, Navy and IAF chiefs who serve till 62 or for three years, whichever is earlier. Moreover, the CDS’ main charter of spearheading the creation of integrated theatre commands (ITCs) to ensure a cost-effective and unified war-fighting machinery remains unfinished.The Modi govt has been pushing for the long-pending creation of the ITCs, in what will be the most radical military reorganization envisaged since Independence. Even the BJP manifesto in the run-up to the 2024 general elections had also promised to “establish military theatre commands for more efficient operations” after creating the CDS post in December 2019.While Gen Chauhan has been working towards bringing in some much-needed synergy among the Army, Navy and IAF in operations, logistics, plans and doctrines as well as inter-service prioritization of capital arms procurements, the progress on ITCs has been very slow.India currently has 17 single-service commands (Army 7, IAF 7 and Navy 3), which do not have the requisite synergy in planning, logistics and operations. The plan is to have two “adversary-specific” ITCs — one for the northern borders with China at Lucknow and the other for the western front with Pakistan at Jaipur. The Maritime Theatre Command at Thiruvananthapuram, in turn, will be for the Indian Ocean Region as well as the larger Indo-Pacific, as reported by TOI earlier.