New Delhi: Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari on Thursday said there would be a need for IAF to prepare for “short swift wars” as well as be ready for a “long-drawn standoff” akin to what is being seen in Eastern Ladakh.
The Air Chief Marshal was addressing IAF senior officers during the inaugural session of a national-level Logistics Seminar at the Air Force Auditorium in the national capital.
“There will be a need to cater for resources bridging and transportation for both these contingencies. While the movement of Sqn load to Operation locations would be supported to an extent by dedicated air effort, timely replenishment of Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF), armament, aviation spares, aviation lubes and FOL, would be a challenging proposition as, during contingencies, the roads and rail heads would be choked due to simultaneous movement of Indian Army along the same axes,” the IAF chief said.
“Towards this, we need to formalise an integrated road and rail management plan and explore the feasibility of increased containerisation and use of civilian wide-bodied aircraft,” he added.
During his speech, the IAF chief focused on the need for indigenisation in the Defence sector.
“A focused action plan needs to be developed for Indigenisation of all critical components in order to achieve the Nation’s mandate of ‘Atmanirbharta’. In doing so, we must leverage emerging technology like AI, Block-chain and Internet of Things (IoT), suitably adapted to our supply chain requirements” he said.
He added that IAF’s recent experiences as well as the evolving geo-political scenario mandates them to be operationally and logistically responsive at all times. He is certain that effective logistics management is key to the sustenance of their combat potential.
“The current geo-political situation necessitates Indian Air Force to prepare for intense and small duration operations at a short notice. This new paradigm of high-intensity operations, coupled with minimal build-up time would require major changes in terms of Op logistics.
Logistics support in such a scenario would be extremely challenging considering the fact that we have a fairly vast and diversified inventory. For drawing a blueprint of such a responsive logistical system, we must deliberate and find answers to some of the pressing questions during this seminar,” he added.
