Question: Tell me what you know about the formation of Tri-services Air Defence Command in India?
Answer: Sir, the ri-services Air Defence Command will shortly be formed in India. Till now Army, Navy & Air Force each had its individual air defence set-up and they maintained their own Air Defence (AD) resources to counter specific threats perceived by each, sometimes even having overlapping areas. The proposed air defence command is meant to integrate the air defence assets of the Army, Navy and Air Force and jointly provide air defence cover to the country. The AD Command will cover the entire air space over the Indian landmass and territorial waters. It will be headed by an IAF officer. The Air Force commander of AD Command will be reporting to the Chief of Defence Staff. The overall responsibility of thwarting an enemy air invasion shall continue with the IAF, while bringing the ground-based AD resources under better synergy. The key elements of AD are the ability to detect and identify aerial threat and thereafter to engage and destroy it. The threat could be any adversary military flying system from a manned/unmanned aircraft to incoming missile. All the three services have weapon systems to tackle these threats. IAF’s combat aircraft equipped with air-to-air missiles can engage the threat at the farthest distances. Once within the surface-to-air guided weapons (SAGW) range, the fighters will be asked to disengage, and missiles will take-on. The close-in weapon systems will be short range AD missiles and anti-aircraft artillery guns. Integration of equipment, systems, training, maintenance, and reducing duplication will save resources and enhance operational efficacy.
Note:
Air Defence Assets of Indian Army
Army Air Defence (AAD) was formed in 1994 (the Corps of Air Defence Artillery was bifurcated from the Army’s Artillery regiment). It has around 85000 soldiers and 6000 officers. The main AD assets of Indian Army include the Akash surface to Air Missiles (SAM), 9K33 Osa (SA-8), 9K35 Strela-10 (SA-13), 9K22 Tunguska, 9K38 Igla, ZSU-23-4M ‘Shilka’, FIM-92 Stinger etc. Indian Army also has many radars linked to its AD systems, which are further integrated by the project ‘Akash Teer’ for area surveillance and attack.
Air Defence Assets of Indian Navy
The Indian Navy (IN) has significant air elements including nearly 200 aircraft, some of which, like the MiG 29K can take on the AD task. IN has one operational aircraft carrier. The second aircraft carrier (indigenous Vikrant) is in advance stage of readiness and may be inducted in next two years. The naval variant of LCA Mk1 has already completed deck landing and take-off trials. Most of its 235 ships have powerful radars and have Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs) and guns for AD tasks. The ships have significant Electromagnetic Counter Measures (ECM) and Electromagnetic Counter-Counter Measures (ECCM) to defend from airborne threat. IN’s indigenous “Trigun System” helps enhance surveillance and attack with better network-centric warfare tools riding on high-speed data communication systems and their integration. It integrates data from civil and military ships, submarines and aircraft and shares the information with all its platforms.
Air Defence Assets of Indian Air Force
Air Force has air-superiority aircraft like the Su-30 MKI, and the Rafale aircraft. The dedicated air defence interceptor aircraft are MiG 21 Bison, MiG 29, and LCA. IAF also has multi-role aircraft with significant AD capability like Mirage 2000. IAF has a variety of SAMs like the Pechora S-125, Osa-AK, indigenous Akash, SPYDER LLQRM system, and the shoulder fired Igla-M missiles. They provide air defence against aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles and UAVs. DRDO has entered a joint venture with Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) to develop the Barak-8 SAM. IAF has two Embraer ERJ-145 based indigenous DRDO AEW&C ‘Netra’ aircraft. It also has 3 EL/W-2090 Phalcon AEW&C incorporated in a Beriev A-50 platform. The S-400 missile defence system was expected to be inducted into IAF in October 2020 (delayed due to the pandemic). The S-400 anti-aircraft weapon system has an operational range of 385km. In addition, USA has recently approved the sale of an Integrated Air Defence Weapon System (IADWS) to India. National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (NASAMS) is a distributed and networked medium to long range air-defence system with the first surface-based application for the AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile).
All the IAF assets are joined with the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS). It is an automated system for Air Defence operations. It links command and control centres with offensive aircraft, sensor platforms and ground missile batteries. It rides on the AFNET. Integration with civil radars and other networks provide an integrated ‘Air Situation Picture’, for intelligence analysis, and mission control.
India’s Ballistic Missile Defence and Anti-Satellite System
India’s Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) Program is a multi-layered system to protect India from ballistic missile attacks. Currently it consists of land and sea-based interceptor missiles, the Prithvi Air Defence (PAD) missile for high altitude interception, and the Advanced Air Defence (AAD) Missile for lower altitude interception. It can cover incoming missiles launched from 5,000 km away. The system includes an overlapping network of early warning and tracking radars, as well as command and control posts. The first phase of the BMD program is now complete and DRDO and IAF are waiting for the government's go-ahead to install the missile shield for the national capital region. Also, the Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile test (Mission Shakti) was successfully conducted in 2019.