Month: July 2022

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Lessons: Air War in Ukraine

 

Being prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.

– George Washington

 

Russia – Ukraine war has entered the fourth month, with no end in sight. This war has affected every aspect of warfare and international engagement. The war has brought into focus the issues related to the new emerging world order, multilateralism, collective security, nuclear deterrence, economic sanctions, information warfare, and food & energy security.

 

Russia has not used the full potential of its military power against Ukraine. Question intriguing the military analysts is why the airpower has not been utilised fully and freely. While Russia is being criticised by the West for its lack of capabilities, another school of thought is that Russia is following a delicate approach towards the use of force and ensuing destruction. While the world is eagerly waiting for the end of this conflict, a lot of lessons are emerging from the prevailing situation.

 

General Aspects of war

 

Objectives. Officially, Russia stated her objectives of the “special military operation” as “demilitarisation, denazification and assurance about the neutral status of Ukraine (i.e. not joining NATO)”. The operations were justified by Russia, citing help call from the Donbas region for its liberation from Ukraine. In retrospect, it appears the undeclared objective was also to consolidate the Russian hold on Crimea.

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Interpreting Chinese Air Activity in Ladakh

 

Had an interesting discussion on the subject with Aadi Achint on Def Talks.

 

 

For selective viewing click on the links below:-

 

1 Introduction.

 

  1. Chinese air activity and changes over the years..

 

  1. Strategic message & Threat.

 

  1. Aspects of Info warfare and narrative.

 

  1.  Chinese attitude and likely changes in the stand offs.

 

  1. Recommendations.

 

 

Bottom Line(s)

Writing is on the wall and it is time to act.

 

Question

Are we catching the bull by the horn?

 

Suggestions and value additions are most welcome

 

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References and credits

To all the online sites and channels.

 

Disclaimer:

Information and data included in the blog are for educational & non-commercial purposes only and have been carefully adapted, excerpted, or edited from sources deemed reliable and accurate. All copyrighted material belongs to respective owners and is provided only for purposes of wider dissemination.

 

 

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EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND AIR DEFENCE

 

Centre of Air Power published a book titled “Air Power & Emerging Technologies”.

 

This article is one of the chapter in the book.

 

It may be said that warfare has acquired a new phase – technological war. The kind and quality of systems that a nation develops can decide the battle in advance and make the final conflict a mere formality or can bypass conflict altogether.

 – Gen Bernard Schriever

Introduction

The origin of warfare is coincident with the origin of living beings. Human beings have made it into a specialised art by applying the knowledge of science to it. The nature of warfare is constantly changing with advancements in technology. Warfare essentially has two facets, offensive and defensive. Offensive action is aimed at causing damage to the enemy and defensive action is to save oneself from the enemy offensive action. In the olden days of fighting with handheld weapons, swords were used as an offensive weapon and shields were used to protect oneself.

Airpower appeared on the warfare scene quite recently as compared to other domains of warfare. Aviation itself started about 120 years back however, within a very short time it made forays into warfare giving birth to a new service. Warfare since then has gone through a rapid change with the use of the third dimension of air and space. Air warfare also has two facets of offensive application of airpower and defensive actions to mitigate the enemy’s offensive air actions. In air warfare, the division between the offensive and defensive campaigns is not as simple as it seems. The two campaigns are intrinsically interconnected.

In the last decade, the Air Defence (AD) operations have undergone an extensive change with new technologies being employed. Research is already in progress on new technologies like Quantum computing, Artificial Intelligence, Hypersonic, Nano Technologies and unmanned systems etc. These new technologies will have a transformational impact on the AD as well. It is worthwhile to trace the historical evolution of AD operations over the years, take stock of the present situation and crystal gaze into the future.

 

AD perspective

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