Chief of defence forces to undertake multi-domain integration, restructuring, and jointness creation; service strategic commands to be unified under National Strategic Command.

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• CDF to undertake multi-domain integration, restructuring, and jointness creation

• Service strategic commands to be unified under National Strategic Command

THE wiring diagram of national security establishment has been rewritten through the most sweeping overhaul of the country’s Hig­her Defence Organisation (HDO) since 1976.

The proponents of the restructuring, introduced through Amendment in Article 243 of the Constitution and the subsequent changes in the legislations governing Army, Air Force and Navy, call it modernisation, while its critics warn about centralization.

At the centre of this redesign sits a single office, which is that of the Chief of the Army Staff, who would soon also be the Chief of the Defence Forces. The dual title has conferred new powers to this office with regards to multi-domain integration, restructuring, and creating jointness of the armed forces. The open-ended wording of the legislative amendment raises question as to who would shape the CDF’s role, from joint force integration to structural reforms, which apparently wouldn’t require parliamentary approval.

The legislation also abolishes the Chai­rman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, the tri-service post designed to maintain institutional balance and coordination within the armed f