'Integrated Rocket Force' Would Complete General Rawat's Unfinished Work

India is soon going to realise the dream of its first Chief of the Defence Forces (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, of India having a dedicated rocket force as it is inching towards establishing an Integrated Rocket Force (IRF) on the lines of China's PLA Rocket Force (PLARF).

The recent successful test-firing of the 'Pralay' surface-to-surface ballistic missile and its inclusion into the Defence Acquisition Council's (DAC) final list has given impetus to the creation of IRF, under which all the missile and rocket systems of the Army, Air Force and Navy will be integrated.

Pralay is likely to be one of the major pivots for IRF, which can create retaliatory as well as pre-emptive options for the Indian Army against China and ensure that the threshold for nuclear warfighting is neither reached nor crossed.

There is an increasing recognition within the Indian armed forces that the future of warfare will hinge on the effective utilisation of the tenets of non-contact warfare as part of shaping operations in any military campaign.

The strikes in Uri and Balakot, and the actions at Kailash range, have also reinforced the fact that an operational space exists between two nuclear armed adversaries for waging warfare, that does not cross into the nuclear domain.

In September 2021, late General Rawat had strongly proposed that India should operationalise an integrated missile force, a tri-service organisation. The command and control of the force can initially be vested in a single service and later it can be made rotational, he had suggested.

This new missile force will field and deploy only conventional missiles that include short-range to medium-range ballistic missiles such as the Pralay, and cruise missiles such as the BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and sub-sonic Long Range - Land Attack Cruise Missiles (LR-LACM).

India plans to keep the IRF and the Strategic Forces Command (SFC), which was set up in 2003 to handle the country's nuclear arsenal, as separate entities. The creation of a common rocket/missile force as separate from SFC is required for creating conventional deterrence and exploiting the windows of opportunity at the tactical and operational levels.