How IAF Is Charting It’s Future Course?

NewsAnalytics Bureau

(This article has featured in Defence Monitor magazine.)

a 4 mins read.

Present Position

The rapid changes being witnessed globally is clearly on the front of evolutionary technologies. Armed forces the world over have also been seen trying to be in synch with times. Irrespective of their national capability, all nations would definitely wish to have most modern armed forces on the planet. The bigger challenges however, has been the availability of resources, identification of right technologies and timeline required for adaptation. Each of the challenges are guided by other critical issues such as geopolitical constraints, selective denial, limited resources, national priority and absorption capability.

Indian Armed Forces being among some of the world’s best in business have not been far behind either. Arguably the most tech savvy service of all; the Indian Air Force (IAF) has been among the forefront of this evolution. IAF has a glorious combat history and has led in the toughest of the operational challenges from India’s wars to recent surgical strikes. It has globally proven it’s awesome capability highly befitting an arm of it’s stature. To the credit of IAF it has been at the forefront in automation and tech innovation while also laying down doctrinal vision for the service. It first published “Air Power Doctrine of IAF” way back in 1995, being first among the three services. Since then, IAF has continued to further hone it’s doctrinal approach keeping it in sync with emerging threats and national aspirations.

Operational Gap

IAF currently holds 31 of it’s sanctioned 42 fighter squadrons that is about 73% of the total required strength. Even more challenging is the fact that there is No immediate solution that appears which could likely address this critical shortfall. It is also in the need of, modern EW platforms, AWACS, Air to Air refuelers, heavy lift capability, High Endurance and High Altitude UCAVS apart from modern Multi Role Multi Mission capable fighter aircrafts.

In 2023 itself, an IAF representative has told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence about critical shortage of fighter squadrons. The Air Chief Marshall VR Chaudhari in his address during 19th Subroto Mukerjee Seminar in December 2022 has underscored the challenges his force is facing. He underlined shortage of fighter squadrons and force multipliers which must be addressed on priority to retain the combat edge. Although he did not want to appear extremely worried but the flagging of such concerns itself is indicative of deeper anxieties.

The breadth and depth of armed forces is a reflection of the security challenges the country is faced with. As the challenges evolve so is the response mechanism. It not only demands integration of newer resources but also the updating and maintenance of existing ones. For IAF the challenges of fresh inductions is as important as the question on maintenance and serviceability issues. This is qualitatively unlike other two services, the main punch of the force are it’s flying machines and understandably it cannot be jacked mid-air if it develops a snag!

Emergent Needs

IAF while identifying these serious issues has steadily undertaken a slew of measures to stabilise the problems. To address the shortfall in fighter squadrons and also to prevent any further depletion it has gone for induction of 40 LCA MK 1 and has placed an order for 100 more LCA Mk 1A version further adding to 83 LCA Mk 1A already ordered and likely to be delivered in early 2024. It has plans to replace it’s Mig 21 fleet with proposed induction of LCAs. It has also led an imaginative approach of acquiring six “pre-owned” aircraft and modified them into tankers to fulfil it’s urgent requirement for mid-air refueller. It has future plans to acquire 114 multi-role fighter aircraft (MRFA) and has floated a Request for Information (RFI) in April 2018 for the same. The upgrades undertaken by the force has also enhanced the battle worthiness of its Mig 29s, Mirages and Jaguars which will now be operational atleast for a decade more.

For Airforce it’s size and the freedom to operate are highly complementary. The critical contours of air operations remain ‘Joint Planning, Centralised Command, Distributed Control and Decentralised Execution’. If conducted in a well synchronised manner the offensive and defensive air operations offers hugely gainful results. The IAF having a reliable automated Network Centric Warfare capability, the number of it’s fighter squadrons and the Air Defence (AD) component thus intrinsically augment each other. IAF has done well to continue investing and re-calibrating it’s AD arm. It might or might not be by design but the force has witnessed steady rise in it’s AD squadrons. These AD squadrons are equipped with varying range & multi layered systems from Russian Pechora (SA3-Goa), OSA-AK, S-400, Israeli MRSAM, indigenously-built Akash as also with short range Igla securing airspace and supporting defensive battle for IAF. This enables unlocking of precious resources for offensive role. With IAF having sizable fleet of multi role aircrafts the switch is rather seamless.

IAF also is in the need of various support equipment and other ancillaries to keep its thump real sharp. With the planned push for IAF’s transformation from a well recognised Airpower to an Aerospace power especially now that it has come up with necessary doctrinal changes. It is a reasonable expectation that IAF will be looking for new space collaboration, smarter acquisitions, better force structuring, giving push for local manufacturing and local maintenance for it’s frontline machines thus improving it’s capacity in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Easier said than done, today only US, China and Russia can boast of having an aerospace component in their defence services and even those are evolving.

Threat Mitigation

India’s geographical disposition and hostile neighbourhood has always thrown massive challenge for armed forces securing national borders. The sub conventional conflicts with China since 2020 has added another critical dimension for the security calculus. The threat No longer is in realms of mid-term or in long-term planning, it is right in front now. The shortcoming and depletion in the IAF’s fleet has been a matter of great discussion from sometime within the service and in the power corridors. The reason is not only operational readiness but it also has a bearing on strategic signalling to adversaries.

Fact of the matter is IAF invariably will be the first responder during emergence of a conflict. A likely two front approach will make responses more complex in terms of optimisation and resource allocation. It will also be pitted against a modern Airforce and a determined adversary. The challenges will need nothing less than the best from our men in blue. For IAF, it won’t be an exaggeration today to suggest that time is of real essence. The situation IAF finds itself in may not offer all good solutions but it has to look for workable ones atleast for now. The overarching concerns will remain, just the sincere efforts may not assure success and this is an uncomfortable reality. For IAF to dawn into a new avatar, that it truly aspires, a long way still remains. The seriousness of approach seen is commendable but nonetheless there’s lot more that needs to be done and much quicker!