COAS Northern Command visit by Gen Dhiraj Seth reviews LoC readiness

The COAS Northern Command visit that ended on Thursday carried Gen Dhiraj Seth from Badamibagh to the forward posts of Poonch, three days spent looking at the Line of Control and the ground behind it. He reviewed the prevailing security situation, operational preparedness and combat readiness of formations deployed along the LoC and in the hinterland. It was his first tour of the command since he took over as the 31st Chief of the Army Staff on 30 June.

The COAS Northern Command visit ran from 07 to 09 July and took in Headquarters Chinar Corps, formations across the Kashmir Valley, Headquarters White Knight Corps and the forward areas of the Jammu region.

Srinagar, and the civil side of the ledger

At Srinagar the Chief was briefed on the Northern Command operational perspective and on the operational preparedness of Chinar Corps, the Srinagar based formation better known in the Army list as 15 Corps. He also called on the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Local reporting from the Valley named the two as Manoj Sinha and Omar Abdullah.

Those calls are not decorative. The Army says the Chief discussed security, stability and coordination in the Union Territory with a range of stakeholders, which in practice means the police, the central armed police forces and the civil administration who share the same map.

COAS Northern Command visit turns to the Yatra grid

At Chinar Corps headquarters the review ran through operational deployments, counter-terrorist operations, inter-agency synergy and evolving security dynamics. Security arrangements for the ongoing Shri Amarnath Yatra came up in the same sitting.

That pilgrimage, running from 3 July to 28 August this year, sits under a multi-layered protection grid ordered earlier by the Union Home Minister. Route security along the Pahalgam and Baltal axes falls largely to the formations the Chief was reviewing. The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board handles registration and the pilgrimage calendar.

The Chief also examined what the Army calls technology absorption, alongside capability enhancement and integrated combat readiness across the full spectrum of operations.

An innovation display, and what it said about the drone question

Gen Seth spent time at a display of indigenous technologies put up by units in the command. He commended the focus on absorption, innovation and capability enhancement, and pressed the case for adopting emerging technologies to sharpen operational effectiveness. The display carried the sort of hardware that has become routine in the Valley since 2025, hexacopters built to lift small payloads over short distances, mounted munitions, field-fabricated surveillance rigs.

None of it is exotic. All of it is cheap, and that is the point.

Formations along the LoC have been improvising drone and counter-drone answers faster than the procurement system can supply them, which is why the Chief keeps returning to the theme. The Rs 1,600 crore loitering munition tender now at the price negotiation stage covers 840 systems for the Regiment of Artillery. Nothing in that contract reaches a Kupwara battalion this season. The rigs on the trestle tables at the display will.

Kupwara, Uri, Manasbal

The Chief visited formations at all three. He was briefed on the security situation, the counter-terrorist grid, the surveillance architecture, field innovations and operational readiness, and he spent time with troops, appreciating their professionalism, dedication and steadfast commitment in conditions the Army describes as challenging.

Poonch, Rajouri and Sunderbani

He moved to Headquarters White Knight Corps at Nagrota next, the Jammu based 16 Corps, and from there to the forward areas along the Line of Control. Poonch, Rajouri, Sunderbani.

The review at the forward posts covered the prevailing security dynamics along the LoC, the counter-terrorist grid, infrastructure development and the integrated combat readiness of formations in the sector. This is the belt where the Pakistan Army has kept pushing infiltrators through the twin districts, and where the anti-infiltration grid has been thickened repeatedly over the past two years. Lt Gen Pratik Sharma, the Northern Army Commander, accompanied the Chief through the command, according to reporting from Jammu.

Beyond the grid, Gen Seth assessed what formations have been doing in India's first villages, the settlements that sit closest to the line and were until recently described as the last ones on the map. Units in the area run people-centric programmes in health, education and skilling. The Chief appreciated their contribution to nation-building, local community engagement and the maintenance of peace and stability.

Nation First

Gen Seth commended all ranks of the Indian Army and personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces for operational excellence, professionalism and unwavering commitment. He exhorted them to remain operationally ready and agile, and to keep striving for excellence, guided by the ethos of Nation First and the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.

The vocabulary is familiar. So is the structure of a maiden command visit, which is always part inspection and part signal about where the new Chief intends to put his weight. Gen Seth was appointed to the post on 13 June and took charge a little over a fortnight later. He had already set out five priorities on day one under the acronym VIJAY, among them innovation and self reliance, both of which surfaced again at the display in the Valley.

He returned to New Delhi on Thursday evening.