1.    Prior to independence, Northern Command was located at Rawalpindi and was responsible for defence of North West India. On partition, the Command Headquarter was allocated to Pakistan. In India, new Headquarter designated as Western Command was located at Shimla to oversee the defence of our Western and Northern borders with Pakistan and some portion of Indo-Tibet border.

2.    The need for a separate Headquarters in the North was felt as far back as the 1948 War. The cumulative experience of 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars reinforced the conviction that geo-strategically the Northern Theatre was too important to be effectively commanded by a Headquarter based as far away as Shimla. The need for creating a separate Northern Command, to meet the security needs was fulfilled on 17 June 1972 with initially two Corps under Command, which was later increased to four Corps, with ‘Strike One Corps’ being reorbatted to Northern Command to enhance the operation capability in Eastern Ladakh.

3.    The Command is responsible for an extremely sensitive region of India which includes UTs of J&K & Ladakh. Its first General Officer-in-Commanding was Lieutenant General PS Bhagat, VC, PVSM.  The present GOC-in-C, Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi, AVSM took over Northern Command on 01 Feb 2022.

4.    The Command Formation Sign consists of ‘Dhruva’ or the ‘North Star’ in the centre of Red & Black Command colour stripes. The Dhruva or North Star symbolizes the geographical North of the Command, since it is entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding the Northern borders of our country. North Star draws its inspiration from Indian mythology where ‘Dhruva Star’ always denotes courage, steadfastness in battle and righteous cause.

5.    Northern Command has been in Operational mode since its very inception, having seen a large number of high and low intensity ops. Today, Northern Command is at the forefront of the Nation's efforts to counter the most serious challenge to her security, the scourge of terrorism and the vicious Proxy War in J&K. Thus, whether officially at peace or in operations, the troops of the Command have been always in combat.