Vikram Singh

The equivalent of 24-30 Rafales basically. We had 12. We want 6 more. In addition to 15 Sea Guardians. Full import. No local manufacture. No indigenous LRMP program. Contrast with indigenous AEW&C and tanker programs. Both critically short force multipliers. And bulk of future fighter purchases being guaranteed indigenous. But, the reaction I see to this is, laudatory. Nice to see understanding of maritime security matters build up. But the same needs to happen for air power in general, not just naval air power

Two sound reasons for IAF’s “sense of insecurity”: IN appropriation of MR role in 1976, & army takeover of AOP a decade later. USA too saw acrimony over aviation “Roles & Missions” & “Core Competencies”, but differences resolved by SecDef via Key West Agreement/1948 (look up).

Air Marshal Tiwari (Retd) speaks out against rocket force and stresses on modern fighter aircraft. Says only countries like China and Russia have done. Iran was forced to do it. No western countries have done it

THE most insecure branch in the Indian Armed Forces is IAF. They are always afraid if new command and force structure will take away their responsibility, or some of it. So much so, they go lengths to affect sister services procurement process. The reason IA has 6 apache is IAF

Please read the 1986 decision that created Army Aviation. This issue had already been addressed then comprehensively. Since 1947, air defence, helicopters, and maritime reconnaissance have all progressively moved out of the IAF’s exclusive domain and become shared with the sister services. Every service has its turf insecurities. Every service also has ambitions of scope expansion. Such tensions are natural and inevitable. That is precisely why the MoD exists: to impose balance and uphold the national perspective. But beyond personal views and institutional positioning, the IAF’s larger reservation has generally been about preserving the efficacy of airpower and ensuring that it is employed in the most optimal manner with the resources available. Even leaving all this aside, perhaps the biggest challenge has been something more fundamental, the limited understanding of what airpower actually is, how it functions, and what it can truly deliver. That said, I will agree on one point. The IAF could have done a much better job of articulating these concerns in public forums in the last decade. Had it done so, many of the perceptions people such as you hold about IAF insecurities might well have been avoided.

The fundamental belief that only the IAF can understand “air power” undermines the very defining characteristic of the air medium - that it unifies the ‘inhabited’ domains (land/sea) by rendering them ‘accessible’. Hence inseparable. Claims to intellectual monopoly are silly.

Please read the 1986 decision that created Army Aviation. This issue had already been addressed then comprehensively. Since 1947, air defence, helicopters, and maritime reconnaissance have all progressively moved out of the IAF’s exclusive domain and become shared with the sister services. Every service has its turf insecurities. Every service also has ambitions of scope expansion. Such tensions are natural and inevitable. That is precisely why the MoD exists: to impose balance and uphold the national perspective. But beyond personal views and institutional positioning, the IAF’s larger reservation has generally been about preserving the efficacy of airpower and ensuring that it is employed in the most optimal manner with the resources available. Even leaving all this aside, perhaps the biggest challenge has been something more fundamental, the limited understanding of what airpower actually is, how it functions, and what it can truly deliver. That said, I will agree on one point. The IAF could have done a much better job of articulating these concerns in public forums in the last decade. Had it done so, many of the perceptions people such as you hold about IAF insecurities might well have been avoided.

Biju uncle was a towering personality, not just Odisha's tallest leader of his era, but among the leading lights of the nation. Most importantly, he was one of the greatest patriots of modern Bharat. National pride burned deep in his veins & he dedicated his life to liberating India & uplifting Odisha. He did that as a pilot, industrialist, political leader, & global trouble shooter. His heroic missions, diplomatic & defence initiatives all contributed to strengthening our fledgling republic. Casting aspersions on his patriotism is fantastical & patently ludicrous. Such attacks on him are unworthy, uninformed, & totally unacceptable.