AIR POWER Journal of Air Power and Space Studies Vol. 3, No. 3, Monsoon 2008 (July-September) AIR POWER CENTRE FOR AIR POWER STUDIES New Delhi AIR POWER is published quarterly by the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi, established under an independent trust titled Forum for National Security Studies registered in 2002 in New Delhi. Board of Trustees Shri M.K. Rasgotra, former Foreign Secretary and former High Commissioner to the UK Chairman Air Chief Marshal O.P. Mehra, former Chief of the Air Staff and former Governor Maharashtra and Rajasthan Smt. H.K. Pannu, IDAS, FA (DS), Ministry of Defence (Finance) Shri K. Subrahmanyam, former Secretary Defence Production and former Director IDSA Dr. Sanjaya Baru, Media Advisor to the Prime Minister (former Chief Editor Financial Express) Captain Ajay Singh, Jet Airways, former Deputy Director Air Defence, Air HQ Air Commodore Jasjit Singh, former Director IDSA Managing Trustee AIR POWER Journal welcomes research articles on defence, military affairs and strategy (especially air power and space issues) of contemporary and historical interest. Articles in the Journal reflect the views and conclusions of the authors and not necessarily the opinions or policy of the Centre or any other institution. Editor-in-Chief Air Commodore Jasjit Singh AVSM VrC VM (Retd) Managing Editor Group Captain D.C. Bakshi VSM (Retd) Publications Advisor Anoop Kamath Distributor KW Publishers Pvt. Ltd. All correspondence may be addressed to Managing Editor AIR POWER P-284, Arjan Path, Subroto Park, New Delhi 110 010 Telephone: (91.11) 25699131-32 Fax: (91.11) 25682533 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.aerospaceindia.org © Centre for Air Power Studies All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission from the Director, Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi ISBN: 81-87966-30-0 AIR POWER Journal is published four times a year and is distributed by KW Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 4676/21, First Floor, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002 Telefax: 23263498 e-mail: [email protected] Typeset by Dharana, e-mail: [email protected] Printed and Published by Air Cmde Jasjit Singh (Retd) on behalf of the Forum for National Security Studies (the Trust running the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi) and Printed by Glorious Printers, 1597-98, Patuadi House, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002 and Published at P-284, Arjan Path, Subroto Park, New Delhi 110 010. Editor: Air Commodore Jasjit Singh (Retd). RNI REGN No. DELENG/2006/18450 CONTENTS VOL. 3, NO. 3, MONSOON 2008 (JULY-SEPTEMBER) Editor’s Note vii 1. AERIAL WARFARE: THE INDIAN WAY 1 While the attributes and capabilities are common to them, all air forces have their unique way of conducting wars, with obviously different results which also depend greatly on how the adversary conducts its side of the war. In the context, Air Marshal V.K. Verma briefly explores the circumstances and the way India used its air force in the wars it had to fight. 2. USE OF AIR POWER IN SRI LANKA: 15 OPERATION PAWAN AND BEYOND Over two decades ago, India sent its armed forces into Sri Lanka on the invitation of the democratic government of that country to help maintain the peace. But the peace-keeping mission rapidly deteriorated into a peace-enforcement task against the separatist violent movement, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which proved to be an elusive and ruthless enemy which had mastered the art of guerrilla warfare in a forested terrain. Air Commodore Arjun Subramaniam revisits the role played by air power from a holistic approach to look at the war fought by the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) against severe odds. 3. ARMY AVIATION IN INDIA 37 Lieutenant Colonel Rajeev Ghose of the Indian Army takes a broad sweep on the origins of flying connected with ground wars to set the stage for writing about how the army aviation evolved in India. As was to be expected, army aviation capa- bilities and organisation in India during the colonial period were primarily provided by the British forces and it was with the onset of World War II that increasing numbers of Indians started to be incorporated into the Royal Air Force (RAF) units. This in turn provided the template and nucleus for the army aviation organisations originally as part of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and progressively with greater integration into the army organisation. 4. DRAGON IN SPACE: IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA 65 Space has acquired a special role in the military capabilities of nations that can acquire them and China is no exception. Its rapid techno-economic growth has given the wherewithal to build its space capabilities and use them in what it terms as “informationalisation” of modern war. China’s space pro- grammes and capabilities have received increasing attention across the world, especially after its anti-satellite test in January 2007. Wing Commander Kaza Lalitendra looks at these space capabilities and future plans to assess their implications for India’s security in the future. 5. NUCLEAR DETERRENCE AND CONVENTIONAL WAR: 99 A TEST OF INDIA’S NUCLEAR STRATEGY Nuclear deterrence has been one of the esoteric subjects that have received enormous attention over the decades. AIR POWER Journal Vol. 3 No. 3 MONSOON 2008 (July-September) iv However, its deep linkages with conventional wars have not received adequate attention in comparative terms. Dr. (Mrs) Manpreet Sethi sets out to remedy this gap and examines the further linkages with the sub-conventional war being waged by Pakistan through religious terrorism under the nuclear umbrella since the time it acquired nuclear deterrence capa- bilities two decades ago. 6. DEFENCE PROCUREMENT CHALLENGES AND 119 NEW PARADIGM SHIFT Military procurement has been a challenging task at the best of times for developing countries like India, dependent as they are on substantive imports of weapons and equipment for their defence. The reasons for the peculiar characteristics of procurement emanate from the fact that they are capital intensive, have long gestation periods, involve detailed and meticulous planning, and are prone to public scrutiny, hence, transparency is desirable in today’s scenario. Group Captain J.V. Singh has elaborated on the defence pro- curement challenges and the responses to them in India in recent times. 7. LEVERAGING OFFSETS IN ARMS TRADE: 145 OPTIONS FOR INDIA Offsets have assumed an increasing role and importance in the sale of military weapons and equipment in recent years. However, it remains a complex area in international cooperation in the defence industrial arena. This essay by Wing Commander V.N. Srinivas looks closely at the com- plexities of challenges that offsets procedures and practice v AIR POWER Journal Vol. 3 No. 3 MONSOON 2008 (July-September) pose to the suppliers as well as the recipients. It is against these challenges that he examines the options for Indian policy to enable it to energise its defence and aerospace indus- try in the future. AIR POWER Journal Vol. 3 No. 3 MONSOON 2008 (July-September) vi EDITOR’S NOTE hile it is more than a decade since India and Pakistan overtly declared their nuclear weapon capabilities, anybody who had any- Wthing to do with national defence knew that in fact the weapons capability had been acquired by both two decades ago. While India went about seeking a solution through universal and non-discriminatory nuclear disarma- ment, Pakistan, on the other hand, stepped up its covert war through terrorism, expanding it from just two districts of Punjab to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and later beyond that. With the combination of nuclear weapons and covert war through terrorism, India’s strategic deterrence began to be eroded (some would say it began to fail). South Block somehow failed to take note of the two concurrent developments: that of the increasing role of air power for coercive punitive application of military force (perhaps the only viable option in a nuclearised environment) with dramatically enhanced capabilities for longer range precision strikes, and, secondly, the use of covert war by Pakistan as its strategy of indirect approach. Nuclear deterrence has been one of the esoteric subjects that have received enormous attention over the decades. However, its deep linkages with conven- tional wars have not received adequate attention in comparative terms. Pakistan’s publicly stated aim of acquiring nuclear weapons was to neutralise superior Indian military capabilities which its former foreign minister had described as the “Sword of Damocles” hanging on his country; except that its army saw this as an opportunity to pursue a successful covert war without pro- voking a military response across the borders. We, on the other hand, continued to fight that war defensively, killing terrorist and losing lives of civilians and security personnel. Less than adequate attention was paid to the combination of the above two factors with the combat force level of the Indian Air Force (IAF) being allowed to wind down by as much as 23 per cent in a mere five years. vii AIR POWER Journal Vol. 3 No. 3 MONSOON 2008 (July-September) Perhaps we had failed to understand the linkages between nuclear deterrence and conventional deterrence (especially of air power) in the new framework of Pakistan pursuing a sub-conventional war. It is time to rethink our strategy of deterrence in order to rectify this situation. Over two decades ago, India sent its armed forces into Sri Lanka on the invi- tation of the democratic government of that country to help maintain the peace. But the peace-keeping mission rapidly deteriorated into a peace-enforcement task against the separatist violent movement, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which proved to be an elusive and ruthless enemy which had mastered the art of guerrilla warfare in a forested terrain.