Russia-Ukraine battle first true occasion of hybrid warfare, has a number of classes: IAF Chief

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The world is witnessing the primary occasion of ‘hybrid warfare’ in the actual sense, which has a number of classes for India, mentioned Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal (ACM) VR Chaudhari on Tuesday.

“This is the first time we are witnessing the unfolding of truly hybrid warfare. The ongoing (Russia-Ukraine) conflict is a reflection of complete multi-domain operations that are taking place,” he mentioned.

“We are witnessing the use of drones, hypersonic weapons, aircraft of all sizes and types and ground forces all working in unison against the backdrop of economic sanctions and diplomatic heft,” the Air Chief added whereas delivering the keynote handle on the All India Management Association’s National Leadership Conclave on “The Future of Air Warfare: Securing the Skies and Beyond”.

“Future warfare is likely to be hybrid in nature and the spectrum of conflict will be spread across all domains spanning from conventional to sub-conventional, kinetic to non-kinetic and lethal to non-lethal, all under a nuclear overhang,” he mentioned.

All this results in “a need for us to develop capabilities across the full spectrum of conflict and focus on multi-domain operations. Similarly, our doctrines, equipment, training and tactics will have to be flexible and able to adapt rapidly to these new challenges.”

So, there’s a lot to study from this, the Air Chief identified. “Primarily what it amounts to is to be able to re-imagine, to reinvent, to be able to rededicate and retrain ourselves for future conflicts,” mentioned the Air Chief.

“Traditionally, wars have been fought on land, at sea, in the air and to some extent, in space. In the past two decades, this spectrum has increased to encompass cyber and information domains,” he famous.

The first 4 domains are classically bodily and the opposite two are digital. The overarching impact of cyber and data on the conduct of typical wars has created a brand new, hybrid and multi area spectrum of battle leading to older ways and techniques changing into passé.  “Therefore, there is a definite imperative to reimagine, reform, redesign and rebuild our traditional war fighting machinery and adapt to this new emerging paradigm,” he mentioned.

As we turn into increasingly interconnected, a cyber-attack on our networks can cripple command and management constructions, he mentioned, noting that within the subsequent struggle, the enemy won’t be a rustic or an organisation. “We may never know the perpetrators of a Distributed Denial of Services attack and we will not know when and from where the attack will take place. In the future, we could be attacked on all fronts, ranging from economic strangulation to diplomatic isolation and military standoffs to information black outs in the form of attacks by Distributed Denial of Services. All this will happen well before the first bullet is fired or the first aircraft goes across the border,” he mentioned.  

“Conflicts in the last few decades have clearly established without doubt, the pre-eminence of air power as the instrument of choice for almost all operational contingencies,” underlined Chaudhari.

The tactical benefit that ‘high ground’ gives is a must-achieve standards even right this moment. In this facet, air energy supplies that top floor and skill to bypass the fielded forces to hit targets in nice depths with velocity and precision, he mentioned.

Underlining the crucial of indigenisation, he mentioned, “We are hugely cognizant of the fact that no nation can be truly sovereign without meeting its basic needs from indigenous sources,” including that this is applicable drastically to the defence wants.

“We need to focus more on research and development with an aim to manufacture on our own rather than relying on minor indigenisation of foreign products,” the Air Chief mentioned.