Thread by @EkNashwar

20th Major General Samir Sinha Memorial Lecture #Highlights

"There can never be a soft war without hard power... Friendships are secondary to national interests... We can't depend on other nations for arms. We need to support indigenous weapons, products, companies, and systems."-CAS

Western Border: No War No Peace Situation likely to continue. Despite the lack of funds newer capabilities will keep developing.

Northern Border: Significant addition of assets, capabilities, infrastructure, and growing assertiveness. The pace of infra buildup HAS, Helipad, Strips, and logistical connectivity is unbelievable- CAS

Threat Manifestation is multi-dimensional and unpredictable. 2 or multi-front war is a possibility and the escalation matrix needs to be controlled by IAF.

The nature of warfare is changing.

Hybrid War

Threat Spectrum & Counters

Capability Voids in IAF:
More Airports/Helipad/HAS in Northern Area
More Aircrafts Required
More ISR, AWACS, SAGW System for High Altitude
Secure Op Comm, Integrated Ti-Service Comm N/W taking shape, Aakash N/W will plug into IACCS along with Trigun of Indian Navy

Traditional Mil Op: John A. Warden's Model

Hybrid Warfare

Multi-Domain Operations

Evolution of Contemporary Constituents of John Warden's Model.
Fielded Military

Population

Infrastructure

Organic Essentials

Leadership

Application of Air Power

Procurement and Upgradation- Fighters
114 MRFA is still WIP and necessary for maintaining the numbers. Buy Global Make in India.
Su-30 upgrade in a phased manner.

Procurement and Upgradation- Transports, ISTAR, FRA, AEW&C

Procurement and Upgradation- Rotary
LCH 10 will be inducted in 1st Sqn by next month
Mi-17 under upgrade
LUH case in the advanced stage
IMRH QRs are being finalized

Procurement and Upgradation- RPA
UCAV progressing well
IAF leading requirement of 127 indigenous MALE UAVs for Tri Services
IN leading Tri-services case for HALE
Swarm Drone and Anti-drone systems led by startups

Procurement and Upgradation- Missile Systems

Procurement and Upgradation- Weapons in the pipeline
Hammer, Mistral, Spike, and Spice at advanced stages of negotiation for local production apart from available indigenous options

Procurement and Upgradation- Radars
12 HPRs (30+ yrs old)due for an upgrade
Arudhra (MPR) will be inducted
P-18 (oldest) Radar deployed in Eastern Ladakh for stealth aircraft detection. To be replaced by VHF Radar
Mountain Radars to augment
Ashlesha (LLLWR) to fill gaps.

Procurement and Upgradation- Critical Information Infrastructure
AFNET is being upgraded to AFNET2.0
AFCEL is being upgraded to 5G

Upgradation of Infrastructure

Capability Enhancement- Disruptive Technology

Capability Enhancement- Automation(Ops)
No Paper involved at CAS office for day-to-day activity
Complete digital planning and dissemination
All in-house solutions
Aniveshan: AI-driven analysis of EW/ELINT data

Capability Enhancement- Automation(Maintenance)
All in-house developed solutions

Capability Enhancement- Automation(Administration)
Almost Paperless

Capability Enhancement- Automation(Office)
Instant Messaging over AFCEL is available
IAF Cloud
IAF Drive for Storage

Capability Enhancement- IACCS
Provides a complete picture of Indian Airspace
The backbone of the AD network
Real-time tracking of Aircraft, 18k to 20k aircraft tagged daily, all uncooperatively, multi-sensor (civil & mil) tracking
AI helps in tracking and weapon allocation

Capability Enhancement- Simulators

Capability Enhancement- Space and Near Space
Most Fighters now have SDR, ground stations, and all other assets being equipped.

Multidomain- Info Warfare

Multidomain- Cyber
IAF Cyber Group formed

Capability Enhancement- Realistic Training
Integrated Training Area over MP for dedicated EW Training including Indian Army's EW assets and Indian Navy's Mig-29s up to 90 to 100 Aircrafts working together
Training under complete communication denial
Check the video in the end

Capability Enhancement- Human Resource
WASP- Warfare and Strategy Program
Intensive Reading Program- Scholar Warriors

Key Focus Areas

Way Forward

Conclusion

Q&A:
Bharat Karnad: Long Range Manned Targeting Bomber Question?
CAS: Tuploves are the 60s designed and need escorting and no self-defense. We have better kinetic and non-kinetic means to handle long-range targets. Contactless warfare is preferred. Also, we have limited budgets😄

CAS Answer to Q&A:
Theater Commands: IAF will support theater command or integrated command. But the structure should be future-ready. Decision-making cycles should be reduced. OODA loop should be shorter. Joint planning is more important, doctrine of service not to be diluted.

Air Defence Command: 1. Resources? 2. Way of IAF planning offensive operations. Omnirole aircraft perform the offensive role and also do combat air patrol as a defensive asset, we can't segregate them into one category of operation.

Agniveers: 4 yrs not enough for specialization, moreover these candidates are often graduates. IAF we redesign the existing courses to make the most of this opportunity.
Desirable vs Possible: The gap is large, budgetary concerns, additional financial budgetary support sought

IAF has a long-term plan and adjustments are to be made based on the rate of induction.
2 Front War & Pak as a nuisance: We need to relook at how we look at them. IAF as an offensive force should stop focussing too much on Pak. China itself is a 2 front.

Space & Quantum Tech: IAF keeps its ears to the ground and has active programs in emerging technologies. DRDO is working on Hypersonic, but a true hypersonic weapon is yet to be fully operational anywhere. IAF also exploring self-reliance in anti-hypersonic, space, antispace tech

Joint Theater Command Doctrine is basically a pre-doctrine Statement: Panel says IAF doctrine on jointness is a doctrine of jointless commands No digital links for interoperability and intention or plan to do joint panning. No one is in command of joint orgs.(loosely summed up).

CAS:
S400 threat in China; IAF is aware of A2AD capability. They are continuously working on toppling A2AD wall of China.
SRBM & LRBM: A lot of scopes, but budgetary constraints limit the IAF.
In charge of Theaterization: Services engaged together, finished tabletop exercise

The experiences and feedback will be shared. The analysis will be collated to start the work on Theaterization.
The stake of Services in National Security Measures and Participants: CAS refrains from commenting in public

Please go through the complete lecture by Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari. The Q&A session is more enlightening than my summaries.