News Highlight
Faced with a challenging security environment, the advent of new technologies, and the issue of scarce finance, the Indian Air Force needs a revised guiding document to help it navigate ahead smoothly.
Key Takeaway
- The roles and missions of the IAF would have to be reassessed since space will be a major, if not a central, player in future conflicts.
- The weaponisation of space must be accepted, the Outer Space Treaty notwithstanding.
Need to Modernise Indian Air Force
- New technologies
- Modernisation is not only limited to fighter aircraft. There is a need to consider whether Force Multipliers like air-to-air refuelers, communication networks etc., also need to be upgraded.
- Indigenisation
- Acquiring credible aerospace power with a meaningful degree of indigenisation will need a greater degree of national resolve, professional integrity and resource allocation than is the case now.
- The induction rate
- The induction rate and the retirement rate are other factors. In the IAF, the induction rate of fighter jets is much slower than their retirement rate.
- To become a superpower.
- India cannot be a superpower without having the indigenous capability to manufacture and service its fleet.
- Hence, modernisation needs to be coupled with indigenous capability.
Steps taken
- Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft
- In the next decade, the IAF hopes to induct the indigenous fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and the Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) — a new platform that would be built in India with a foreign entity, the “original equipment manufacturer” (OEM), and thereby move up to 35 squadrons.
- Integrated Air Command and Control System
- As far as the net centricity is concerned, the IAF has an Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS), which integrates all ground and air sensors.
- Dedicated satellite
- The IAF now also has a dedicated satellite for its operations.
- For example, GSAT-7A (Angry Bird)
- Modernisation of Air Field Infrastructure
- On the infrastructure front, the IAF had a project called Modernisation Airfieldeld Infrastructure (MAFI).
- Thirty of the airfields have been upgraded to all weather 24X7 flying capabilities.
The Indian Air Force (IAF)
- About
- IAF is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces.
- Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the world’s air forces.
- Origin
- It was officially established in 1932 as an auxiliary air force of the British Empire which honoured India’s aviation service during World War II with the prefix Royal.
- Renaming
- After India gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, the name Royal Indian Air Force was kept and served in the name of Dominion of India.
- The prefix Royal was removed after the government’s transition to a Republic in 1950.
- Significance
- Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflict.
- The President of India
- The President of India holds the rank of Supreme Commander of the IAF.
Content Source: The Hindu