Three services. Three separate missile chains. One big question nobody's asked out loud — until now.
India is quietly debating something huge: a single, unified rocket and missile force.
Think of it as India's own version of what China and Pakistan already built.
May 2025. India fires BrahMos, Pralay, SCALP cruise missiles, long-range artillery and kamikaze drones — deep into Pakistan.
Precision strikes. Terrorist infrastructure. Military targets.
It worked.
But it also exposed a problem.
Right now, India's missile power is scattered.
Four different commands. Four different clocks.
In a crisis, every second lost is a second the enemy gains.
Because the neighbourhood changed the rules.
China built the PLARF — one of the largest missile forces on Earth, running everything from ICBMs to hypersonics.
Pakistan followed. It stood up its own Army Rocket Force Command on August 13, 2025 — modelled directly on China's playbook.
Defence Secretary R.K. Singh didn't mince words: "Evolving global conflicts and Pakistan's growing conventional missile capabilities have prompted this strategic shift."
India, some say, is now the odd one out.
Here's the twist.
Outgoing army chief Gen. Upendra Dwivedi backs the idea — "it is the need of the hour," he said.
But top artillery veterans are pushing back hard.
Lt Gen. P. Ravi Shankar's counter-argument: India already has the nucleus of a deep-strike force in its three artillery divisions. Just expand them. Add drones. Add ISR. Don't build a new bureaucracy.
Lt Gen. Anil Ahuja goes further: a new force means new logistics, new costs — money better spent buying more missiles.
Even outside experts agree it's not obvious. Christopher Clary of the University at Albany says there's no single global model — and a new command only helps if joint coordination is actually broken.
It's about speed vs structure.
Faster decisions during war.
Versus the risk of duplicating what already exists.
One thing everyone agrees on, though: India's missile arsenal needs to keep growing — indigenous, faster, sharper.
The command chart is still being drawn.
The stakes already aren't.
That's all for now!
