A Force for All The Ateres
Context:
- The Indian Air Force’s new doctrine approaches the demands of national security in a comprehensive manner. With the exception of the war in 1971, India has a history of deploying air power sparingly in all of its engagements.
- The controversial employment of the powerful military tool is the result of two things.
- The first is a lack of comprehension of the globally occurring, inherently complex, and rapid technical developments in air power characteristics and capabilities.
- The second is India’s traditional surface-dominant security strategy, which is the outcome of defending against threats that are mostly of a continental nature.
- Both of these factors have contributed to the pervasive perception of air power through the narrow lens of a support service to the continental and marine domains, despite the Indian Air Force’s long-standing, ongoing, and well-established commitment to national security.
Given the altering dynamics of external security, the Indian Air Force needs to play a more active role.
- Given that Asia is the centre of the geopolitical unrest in the international order and that two adversaries with potent air forces are situated on India’s tumultuous borders, addressing the security problems for the nation necessitates multi-domain expertise.
- Continued two-dimensional thinking compromises national security and reduces India’s options for action. It also limits India’s strategic perspective.
- The revised IAF doctrine emphasises the necessity for a more all-encompassing strategy for India’s security as a result, and also describes what aerospace may be able to contribute to support it.
- It enables a better comprehension of the redefined characteristics of aerospace power and its expanded capabilities, not just in terms of present and potential warfare and conflicts but also in terms of its contribution to nation-building, enhancing regional security, and furthering India’s larger national interests.
The revised Air Force Doctrine makes an effort to address current issues:
- The doctrine is backed up by a clear statement of the Service’s goals. It was created using battle experience, priceless analyses of other people’s wars, and knowledge gained through participating in international exercises.
- A revolutionary air strategy covers the complete spectrum of potential future aircraft applications: This also alludes to the odd no-war, no-peace scenario the nation is in, in addition to peace and war.
- State-sponsored terrorism, an increase in border standoffs, and issues with internal security have made India’s peace unsettling. Aerospace power affects security operations and both internal and external security. In times of peace, maintaining national security, deterrence, air diplomacy, and nation-building remain top concerns.
- The doctrine is capable of supporting sizable modifications in combat strategies that enable the application of future regulations for the use of aerospace force in the security context of India.
- The doctrine’s emphasis on the need of dominating the skies is a legitimate necessity for India’s future combined military plans, as opposing air powers will make all fighting locations hotly contested. In the Russia-Ukraine war, it was conspicuously absent.
- A distinguishing feature of the IAF’s wartime aviation strategy, which derives from the joint military strategy and is lateraly linked to the ground and sea plans, is its strong joint credentials, which have been demonstrated in every fight.
- The foundation for the coordinated operations of the IAF, along with army and navy activities, is created by the two fundamental pillars of air power—offensive air operations and air defence.
- Attacking strategic, high-value counterforce and countervalue target systems deep inside the enemy’s homeland is a crucial part of the IAF’s offensive capabilities.
- The repercussions on the enemy’s political-military will and capabilities to wage war have received significant doctrinal weight.
- Due to the expansion of battlespaces beyond the traditional air, land, and sea domains and the necessity of a multi-domain approach in India’s future joint military strategy, the IAF’s future air strategy is based on battle space transparency, combat networks, cyber and electronic warfare, information warfare, and the essential techno-logistics.
- Because doctrine evaluations are regularly done to keep up with the rapid technical changes in air power tactics and ideas of operations, human resources, training, and operational testing and evaluation continue to be priority doctrinal precepts.
Conclusion:
- The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2018 Shangri-La speech, in which he spoke of working “with others to keep our seas, space, and airways free and open” and “equal access under international law to the use of common spaces on the sea and in the air,” doctrinally supports the IAF’s dedication to the nation’s larger political goals.
- The document highlights the IAF’s inevitable and expanding role in the SAGAR (Strategy for Security and Growth for All in the Region) and the broader Indo-Pacific framework by utilising its quick force projection capability, significant soft power, and global outreach to support statecraft and diplomacy.
- Since national security is a top concern for every citizen and efforts are being made to establish national defence and security programmes, the ideology successfully conveys what aerospace power has, can, and will do for the nation and the necessity for deeper knowledge of it.
