NEW DELHI: The
IAF
on Friday again strongly objected to the proposed creation of a stand-alone or separate
Air Defence Command
(ADC) as part of the overall plan to set up joint or integrated theatre commands in the country, with Air Chief Marshal VR
Chaudhari
stressing it could prove “counterproductive” in the wars of the future.
“Air defence and offensive air missions are interdependent and if executed in isolation, these would not only be disjointed but also ineffective in design or execution of the joint strategy”, the IAF chief said at a seminar organized by the
Centre for Joint Warfare Studies
.
Moreover, modern 4.5 or 5th-generation fighter jets like the newly-inducted Rafales have “omni-role capability” ranging from offensive to air defence operations. “Restricting those aircraft to any one role would lead to their underutilisation. Flexibility, one of the characteristics of air power, gives a planner the freedom to swing roles depending on the air situation and this must be capitalised upon,” ACM Chaudhari said.
The plan to set up four integrated commands, with the assets and manpower of Army, Navy and IAF under a single operational commander in each theatre, was being spearheaded by chief of defence staff General
Bipin Rawat
before his untimely death in a helicopter crash in December last year.
Since then, the process to set up the ADC, a maritime theatre command and two land-based commands for Pakistan and China has slowed down. The IAF even then had argued it would be operationally unwise to divide its “limited air assets” like just 32-33 fighter squadrons, six mid-air refuelling aircraft, three AWACS and two AEW&C aircraft among the different theatre commands.
At the seminar on “Air and Missile Defence”, ACM Chaudhari underlined the need to usher in more jointness in land-air-sea war-fighting operations. But he added, “While there is a need for close coordination between all elements within the same airspace to ensure aerospace safety as well as effective air defence, creation of an ADC may prove counterproductive because air defence operations are inextricably linked to counter-air operations and all offensive operations. Success or failure of one will dictate the demands on the other.”
The IAF can swiftly move its forces from one front to another across the country in less than 48 hours. “To prosecute the land, maritime or air strategy independently will almost certainly lead to failure because the enemy will fight a joint and integrated war. The enemy air and missile forces will be brought to bear on the fielded forces albeit from stand-off ranges and will adversely affect the progress of land or maritime battles. Therefore, control of air will remain paramount for success of any operation,” the IAF chief said.
A larger truly-networked integrated air defence system is also critical because new threats are emerging in the detection, identification, interception and destruction of a hostile aircraft or projectile at both extremes of the speed spectrum.
“Slow-moving drones and their small radar cross-section pose problems in detection and identification. At the same time, hypersonic weapons, due to their enormous speed differential vis-à-vis available air defence weapons, pose a significant challenge for interception and destruction,” ACM Chaudhari said.
Work is also in progress to integrate the space segment into the IAF’s integrated air command and control system (IACCS). “We must also look at operationally integrating ballistic missile defence capability into the integrated air defence system,” he said.
