Time to prepare for prolonged wars: Air Force chief

New Delhi, Dec 10: Air Chief Marshal VR Choudhary said that now is the time to be prepared for prolonged wars, adding that earlier we prepared ourselves for short and swift wars.

On being asked what went wrong with Russia in conflict with Ukraine, the Air Force chief said that Moscow failed to execute a decisive war despite having a comparatively stronger army than Ukraine, according to the report.

Russia has been engaged with Ukraine in conflict since February 2022, however, could not take control of Kyiv. Russia has a stronger army than Ukraine, but Ukraine has been pushing back Russian soldiers from its territory.

The air chief emphasised the need of establishing air superiority over a fighting zone, although selection and maintenance of a goal were not observed in the war, and it was unclear what the conflict termination criteria were in the war.

The air chief stated that in order to wage a war in the twenty-first century, a few factors such as goal selection and maintenance, conflict termination criteria, and the use of technology with right tactics are critical.

When questioned about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), the air chief stated that UAVs, like drones, are less helpful in disputed air defence zones because drones may struggle to avoid missiles. The airforce, on the other hand, would be receiving drones as part of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat.

"The overall strength of the air force has been decreasing due to the continuous phasing out of fighter aircraft, but still, we will continue to have an undeterred focus on indigenous production without compromising on technology and capability gaps," said the air chief.

"We espouse to transform air power into aerospace power with the help of space application that is pretty useful in navigation, position and time mapping," said Air Chief Marshal VR Choudhary.