Recent strikes by China have weaponised the house area, Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari stated on Thursday, as he acknowledged that terrestrial, house and aerial domains are shedding their “individual identities” and the spectrum extends from small drones to hypersonic ballistic missiles.
Space-based property may change into important for the conduct of operations in a networked situation sooner or later, the Air Chief Marshal stated.
Speaking on the Jumbo Majumdar International Seminar in regards to the Future Challenges of Aerospace Power, Chaudhari stated, “China’s latest demonstration of physically moving one of its disabled satellites into the graveyard orbit is bringing in newer threats in the race to weaponise the space domain, a domain hitherto considered relatively safe.”
“The spectrum that we are looking at stretches from kinetic to non-kinetic, lethal to non-lethal and from small drones to hypersonic ballistic missiles. This vast and ever-changing continuum will pose significant challenges for the armed forces of the future.”
Speaking about hypersonic missiles, which China examined final yr, Chaudhari stated, it’s “launched from the floor of the earth, flies by the ambiance into house and returns to a goal on the earth with velocities far increased than any land and aerial platform. Similarly, as space-based property change into hubs for controlling terrestrial, underwater and aerial fight, they might additionally change into facilities of gravity which an adversary wish to goal.”
He asserted that “armed forces across the world have realized that the control of this vast continuum should rest with the air force.”
Drones and miniature aerial autos and their proliferation “will pose a significant challenge for conventional air space control” and sooner or later, he stated, “there would be teaming of manned and unmanned combat systems.”
He stated that house journey “has already become a reality” and “exponential growth in the civil aviation sector coupled with future developments in terrestrial travel will pose a huge problem in terms of air space control.” This “conundrum” he stated, must be addressed “before we get overtaken by technology.”
Terrestrial, aerial and space-based methods, he stated, “have now become a single entity bound by a common network and therefore also vulnerable to attacks” and whereas conventional land, sea and aerial warfare will all the time happen, “unconventional and hybrid means to disrupt typical functionality will have to be countered.”
Chaudhari stated that the expansion of aviation during the last century “has been unparalleled and has revolutionized the character of warfare” and management of air “has become a prerequisite for the conduct of operations at all levels.”
“Aerospace power continues to evolve and mutate, primarily fueled by induction of new technology, the emergence of new threats and evolution of new paradigms for warfighting.”
Talking about future challenges, he stated that the foremost is know-how and conserving tempo with it, as “no other field has seen such a rapid transformation in technology as airpower has seen in the last 120 years of its existence.” The know-how on this area is “niche, proprietary and often under tight state control” Chaudhari stated, including that “an associated challenge is to develop the capability for indigenous design, development and production of future capability.”
He referred to as for an “all of nation approach” as “no single entity will have the resources or the knowledge base to develop future battle-ready technology.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
