Category: Aircraft

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86: Q & A Series (Part 2): International Exercises

In various interactions questions are asked during the Q & A session. Starting a new series on compiling these valid and interesting questions with comments.

 

RECENT QUERRY  AND MY TAKE ON IT

 

Question. What are various facets related to joint exercises with friendly foreign  countries? What advantages accrue out of these exercises?

 

Comments. IAF conducts regular exercises with friendly foreign  countries. These exercises involve lot of detailed planning and preparation. The preparations start almost six months prior or earlier.

These exercises are bilateral or multilateral, single service or multi service. The trend is changing from bilateral single service exercises earlier to multilateral multi service exercises now.

IAF has carried out exercises with Air Forces of many countries including USA, Russia, UK, France, Australia, South Africa, UAE, Singapore, Oman and Thailand etc.

The level of exercise (i.e. number of aerial assets,  duration of exercise  and type of  air combat missions) depends from country to country. These vary from short duration exercises with few assets on themes like HADR to full fledged combat exercises with large number and variety of platforms carrying out complex LFE (large scale engagement) missions.

The frequency of carrying out exercises also varies from country to country. With some countries it is regular once every two or three years. With others it is less often, once in 3 to 5 years. Generally during transit for bigger exercises, some smaller exercises are carried out during the stop overs en route (Out bound or inbound leg).  These are called hop exercises.

There are many advantages of these exercises. These exercises are part of defence diplomacy and political signaling in the larger scheme of international relations and engagements. At operating level, the participants learn about the best practices from each other and It broadens their horizon and prepares them for their future assignments. Further it improves interoperability between the participating forces. The advantages accrued out of these exercises far outweigh the effort and money spent on them.

 

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75: Q & A SERIES (Part1)

In various interactions questions are asked during the Q & A session. Starting a new series on compiling these valid and interesting questions with comments.

RECENT QUERRIES AND MY TAKE ON THEM

 

Question 1. What is the status on MMRCA 2.0?

 

Comments. MMRCA 2.0 – It refers to proposal for acquisition of 114 fighter ac by IAF. Open sources indicate that it is still at RFI state. Next step would be issue of RFP after government approval. My personal take is that instead of going through the entire procurement procedure again, we should go in for two more squadrons of  Rafale aircraft immediately. The induction would be faster and it is already in the inventory. We need to have a balance between the quantity  and the quality. It will meet the requirements till indeginous 5th gen AMCA comes up. Also phased induction is always better.

 

Question 2. Why do we still have to buy almost all of the weapons from foreign countries?

 

Comments. We are trying Leap frog method. Wherein, we procure weapons and equipment to meet immediate needs and maintain minimum level of deterrence capability while trying to make our own indigenous ones to match with the existing technology worldwide. Unfortunately the indigenous development is adversely affected by cost and time over runs besides the issue of matching quality. Hope the recent initiatives by the government to boost Atma Nirbharta succeeds and provides necessary impetus to the whole process. It is already showing some results. Latest SIPRI report indicates drop in defence import.

 

Question 3. What should be the priority for capability building between Army, Navy, Air Force, or enhancing cyber / space capabilities?

 

Comments. Each domain of warfare and each service is important. It is not a simple linear process of capability building. A balanced approach is required. War is going to be multi domain therefore, the capability building has to be uniform and the threats need to be tackled with whole of government approach. This is easier said then done. However, with CDS coming in the issue of inter-service priority would get addressed. Whereas, priority for capability development of defence forces vis-a-vis Cyber and Space domain would have to be decide following whole of government approach.

 

Question 4. Does India need Strategic bomber like the ones possessed by USA, China and Russia.

 

Comments. Strategic bomber is a good asset for power projection especially for countries with expeditionary ambitions. It is a costly asset and for India it would be low on the priority list. There is a need to boost many other capabilities on priority. Even in IAF higher priority list includes fighter ac, combat support ac (AWACS and Refuellers), drones and UAVs, smart weapons, protective infrastructure etc.

 

Question 5. Is the era of manned fighter jet over?

 

“No Machine can replicate the human gift of discovery and situational awareness”

– Air Mshl V Patney

Comments. This debate has been going on for long and recently picked up due to proliferation of drones and unmanned platforms. Both manned and unmanned platforms have advantages and disadvantages. At the moment thought process is to harness the advantages of both with the concept of manned platform leading a swarm of unmanned platforms in formation. 6th generation aerial platforms are heading this way. Various projects are under consideration and development for this loyal wingman concept. I call it Mother Goose Concept.

Questions / Queries and valuable additions are most welcome.

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