Yes I did.
He was asked to respond to the grievances in the IAF about IA considering them as a air artillery rather than their primary role of deep strikes and air dominance.
He then went on to talk about the kargil committee and the issues we faced during the kargil war which was absolutely true.
Kargil committee laid down the foundation for our cyber agency and special operations command which are today known as DCA and AFSOD.
He then went on to say that the airforce is a support branch and air defence and army support comes under their charter.
What he did was to reinforce the grievances in IAF by saying that air defence and army support are the two things that comes under the charter of air force.
In the battlefield of 21st century air forces around the world are not restricted to air defence rather are used as strike elements to be used even before the army offense can begun.
IAF sees itself as the opening rounds of a salvo being fired in the first few days of war where they systematically degrade the enemy defences and gain air dominance in the region too then provide the army with sufficient breakthrough to break into enemy lines.
The gist of interview is,
BiRa want to create command structure and tri-services cooperation. Sawant asking if it's actually happening on the groun. There are reports that IAF having serious reservations and insisting 'one nation - one theatre'.
BiRa then said - As I said as far as the Indian Air Force is concerned, yes, the entire air space of the nation will be looked after by one air defence command. We are creating one air defence command which will look after the entire nation's airspace. But what we are looking at is, because you have a western theatre and a northern theatre, one dealing with our northern adversary and one dealing with our western adversary and
we are creating land based theatres for them. The reason is, air force is not just responsible for air defence. It has got other charters. It has got a charter of providing close air support to the land forces when they undertake operatons and for offensive airsupport in case you go into adversary's territory.
I actually typed what he said in response to the question.
We goes to next question by Sawant - Some of the reservations by IAF is that army looks at them perhaps as air artillery not the lead offensive force in future combat. Also they are accusing CDS of forcing impractical deadlines down their throats.
BiRa then responds - The issue of integration and jointness is not new. It started with Kargil review committee. How our army and airforce couldn't operate jointly. At that time, we realised the need for integration. That's why the CDS came in. Wars are done by theatre commands. Examples of 1971 war. How airforce assets moved from eastern theatre to western theatre after eastern pakis were dealt with. This kinda dynamic change does happen. Air force is required to provide support to the ground forces. Do not forget airforce continues to remain as supporting arm to the armed forces. Just as the artellery support. They will be supporting arm but they have a charter they have a air defence charter and supporting ground forces in times of operations. This is the basic charter they have to undestand.
/transcript
CDS creating Integrated theatre commands so that we have much better system in place. Since these two theatres are land based, the airforce have to provide support role. He didn't rule out airforce lead theatre command. He is only talking about Western and Northern theatres.
www.instagram.com
