Organisation and Structure of India's Defence Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard)
This domain tests command structures, service roles, rank hierarchies and inter-service arrangements. You should know which headquarters, command or agency is responsible for a given operational or administrative task.
Core structure
- The President is supreme commander; the Ministry of Defence provides political and administrative control.
- The Chief of Defence Staff is principal military adviser and heads the Department of Military Affairs; the Chiefs of Staff Committee comprises the three service chiefs.
- The Army has seven commands, including Northern (Udhampur), Western (Chandimandir), South Western (Hisar), Southern (Pune), Eastern (Kolkata), Central (Lucknow) and ARTRAC (Shimla).
- The Navy has Western (Mumbai), Eastern (Visakhapatnam), Southern (Kochi) and Andaman and Nicobar (Port Blair) commands.
- The Air Force has Western, South Western, Central, Eastern, Southern, Training and Maintenance commands.
- The Coast Guard is under the Ministry of Defence, headed by a Director General, with regional headquarters at Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Port Blair.
- The Assam Rifles is under the Ministry of Home Affairs, not the Army.
Worked example
A question asks which headquarters would coordinate a tri-service amphibious exercise in the Andaman Sea. Reasoning: the Andaman and Nicobar Command at Port Blair is India's operational tri-service theatre command, so it would coordinate the exercise, drawing on Navy, Army and Air Force components. The Integrated Defence Staff supports joint planning, but HQ ANC is the operational headquarters.
Traps that cost marks
- Placing the Coast Guard under the Navy; it is a separate armed force under the MoD.
- Assuming the CDS directly commands all three services; operational command remains with service chiefs unless a theatre command is notified.
- Mixing Army and Air Force command locations.
- Forgetting that Assam Rifles is under MHA.