Urgent Need to Modernise IAF: Pallam Raju

New Delhi, Mar 19 (UNI) Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju today stressed the need to modernise and raise the squadron strength of the Indian Air Force if it were to "truly mature into a trans-continental force" capable of safeguarding the nation's economic and strategic interests.

The utilisation alongside of the private sector's capabilities for strengthening the country's defence sector also needed sustained nurturing and encouragement, the Minister observed while delivering the 'Air Chief Marshall P C Lal Memorial Lecture' on ' Status and Strategy : Future of Aerospace in India' here.

Referring to the Aerospace Defence Command, a concept being hotly debated in defence circles lately, Minister Raju pointed out that many defence operations relied on space-based sensors. "The option of having an Aerospace Defence Command would certainly help the forces in better surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking," he opined.

India, he said, had been playing an active role in discussions on the cooperative use of the outer space through deployment of space-based disaster management capabilities and could play a key-role in collaborative structures that tackle threats to the well-being of a nation.

Minister Raju averred that with the nature of warfare changing more in the last 15 years than in the previous 150, Aerospace Power had come to occupy a dominant position.

"In fact, the 21st century will belong to Aerospace Power A robust programme is urgently required to transform the IAF into a dominant space power." The Minister said although the idea for setting up an Aerospace Command was initially proposed by the IAF in the late 1990s, apparently the Chinese having recently downed a satellite with a missile allegedly fired from the ground could have proven to be a catalyst to further the argument for such a Command.

The justification for an Aerospace Command may also be due to the massive growth of India's space programme in recent years, with its ever-growing reliance on space-based communication satellites that sustain its Information and Communications Technology assets, Minister Raju said.

Referring to the nation's aeronautical manufacturing capabilities, the Minister said the need of the hour was for better and more focused efforts of project management to be able to deliver to the functional satisfaction of the Armed Forces. "Strict discipline has to be maintained in adhering to deadlines with better coordination with the users, namely the Armed Forces." Minister Raju said an audit by the IAF of its unutilised airfields and airstrips had encouraged the Ministers and the officials of the Civil Aviation and Defence to sit together to evolve a mechanism for the optimum utilisation of the nation's assets to enable the growth of the civil sector.

"Better coordination and frequent dialogue between the Ministries of Defence and Civil Aviation is important to resolve such issues as resolvable issues need not be obstacles to economic growth." UNI