New Delhi, Oct 9 (PTI): Victory smiles on those who anticipate changes in the character of warfare and adapt accordingly, IAF Chief Air Marshal A P Singh said on Friday, and asserted that air power will be instrumental in achieving a decisive victory.
In his address at a seminar on ‘Central Role of Air Power in the Evolving Battlespace’, he also reiterated that the two major ongoing conflicts in the world, and India’s own experience during Operation Sindoor last year, have underlined the primacy of air power.
“You look at the topic of the seminar… Centrality of air power. There is no doubt about it, because you look at the two wars that are going on in the world, or you look at our own experience of last year, Operation Sindoor, they have proved very clearly that it is air power which is going to get you a decisive victory. It is air power which is going to be used majorly in any contest,” the air chief marshal said.
After hitting the terrorist camps during Operation Sindoor last year, “when we were coerced into a war, in four days, we were able to decimate the enemy installations and military might, right across the border,” he said.
It was only possible because “we used air power and we used it effectively. So there is no doubt about this topic,” the IAF chief said.
The event, hosted by a defence think-tank at the Subroto Park here, was a parallel event held in Delhi on the sidelines of the multilateral air exercise ‘Tarang Shakti’ currently underway at the Jodhpur Air Force Station in Rajasthan.
Seven foreign nations, including the US, France, Germany and Australia, are participating in the second edition of the exercise hosted by the Indian Air Force.
The US’ multi-role stealth fighter jet F-35 is taking part in the exercise for the first time.
At the seminar, the IAF chief said victory smiles upon those who anticipate changes in the character of warfare.
“If one doesn’t anticipate changes and waits for them to happen and then adapt, then maybe it will be a bit too late in this era of rapidly evolving technology and changing nature of warfare,” he said.
The IAF chief also asserted that “no force can win a war alone”.
“It all depends on what the objectives are. Depending on objectives, which force will be applied. Whatever you do, whichever force is applied, air power will be applied in some manner or the other. That is positive.
“So, there is a need to fight jointly across domains. And that need means there’s a need for joint communication, there is a need for joint planning and having integrated networks and integrated and joint training, which is very important,” he said.
The air officer, who will superannuate on October 31, underlined that “today’s war is not about winning or acquiring some piece of land; it is also about winning the perception, winning what people feel or what the other side feels”.
“So, there are two sides to it. Yes, perception management and information warfare have been there right from the beginning, and we’ve been talking about fog of war and everything,” he added.
On Thursday, the air chief marshal led celebrations marking the IAF’s 94th anniversary through a grand ceremony at the Hindan Air Base in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier, in his address on Air Force Day, he said conflicts in several parts of the world have shown that air power is the primary means of protecting national interests.
He asserted that since its inception in 1932, the IAF has evolved into an exceptional, capable, network-centric and multi-domain force ranked among the finest in the world. PTI KND ARI
ARI
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