AIR POWER Journal of Air Power and Space Studies Vol. 5 No. 2, Summer 2010 (April-June) 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 Shri T. K. Mukherjee Distributor KW Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 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Ltd. 4676/21, First Floor, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002 Telefax: 23263498 e-mail: [email protected] Printed and Published by Air Cmde Jasjit Singh (Retd) on behalf of the Forum for National Security Studies (the Trust run- ning the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi) and Printed by Rajkamal Electric Press, Plot No. 2, Phase IV, HSIIDC, Kundli 131028, Sonepat, Haryana 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. 5 No. 2, Summer 2010 (April-June) Editor’s Note VII 1. ON AIR POWER 1 Recorded speech by Wing Commander K.K. “Jumbo Majumdar, DFC and Bar, delivered in February 1945. Jumbo died a few days later in a crash while demonstrating low level aerobatics at Walton airfield near Lahore. One of great pioneers of the Indian Air Force, he had earned his DFC both on the Burma front as well as in Europe. In the brief speech directed at the youth of India, Jumbo argues for the importance of air power and the young men to join the (then Royal) Indian Air Force. 2. AIR DomINANCE AND THE FUTURE of AIR POWER 5 In this essay, Air Commodore Jasjit Singh (Retd) argues that the concept of air superiority was given up by most air forces after World War II and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, except some like air forces like the US Air Force and the Israeli Air Force. Most other countries, including India, adopted the more limited concept of “favourable air situation”, thus, diluting the concept of air superiority. The Indian Air Force has embraced air superiority only recently and, in fact, has gone over to the term air dominance. But air dominance today goes beyond air-to-air dominance and can be most effective in air-to- surface dominance, provided technology and organisation (especially for air intelligence) are planned for, and possessed, during peace-time. 3. INTEGRATION of MoD AND DEFENCE PLANNING 25 The Indian defence organisation has moved quite a distance away from what was established soon after independence, which was similar to that III AIR POWER Journal Vol. 5 No. 2, SUMMER 2010 (April-June) CONTENTS of the UK (also parliamentary democracy) and, with minor differences, that of the United States. Central to the higher defence organisation of other democracies is the integrated Ministry of Defence (Department of Defence in the US) which is manned jointly by civil and military professionals. Wing Commander R. Venkataraman examines the role and effect of an integrated Ministry of Defence on defence planning, budgeting and procurement, the key responsibilities of the higher defence organisation of a state. 4. ASIA IN THE DEBATE ON AMERICAN GRAND STRATEGY 53 Dr. Michael J. Green examines the place and role of Asia in the debate on American grand strategy. Although he, like many Americans and East Asians, perceives Asia as the region of the continent east of India, American strategy in this limited framework is naturally of great importance to India since it includes China and Japan, where the former has been pursuing policies to undermine US global and regional strategies. 5. DEFENCE CoopERATION: A CasE STUDY of INDIA AND SINGapoRE 73 Cooperation between Singapore and India has been growing in diverse ways and is being strengthened in diverse fields. Pankaj Jha and Rahul Mishra have jointly examined the extent and areas of cooperation between the two countries in the field of defence. This itself indicates the depth of political convergence of interests reached between them. More important, perhaps, is the indication of the great potential that lies ahead to strengthen the bilateral political-strategic partnership through defence cooperation, besides other measures. 6. AFGHANISTAN AND THE AMERICAN STRATEGIC PERspECTIVE 97 Afghanistan has often been termed as the “graveyard of empires” for a variety of reasons not the least being the fierce pride and sense of AIR POWER Journal Vol. 5 No. 2, SUMMER 2010 (April-June) IV CONTENTS independence of the country built on the bricks of tribal loyalties which may be in conflict among themselves but would come together to oppose the intruder. The Cold War goal of hitting at the Soviet “soft underbelly” in Central Asia and exploiting its energy resources, and its linkage with the agenda of the Pakistani leadership seeking to control the country through an unexplained “strategic depth” to bolster its own strength against India, has resulted in a war that has actually gone on since the 1970s and shows little signs of winding down. In this sensitive piece, Dr. Sanjeev Bhadauria searches for the geo-political dynamics of the American strategic perspective of this troubled land where great games have become as common as Buzkashi. 7. CHALLENGE foR THE INDIAN MILITARY: MANAGING OZONE DEPLETING SUBSTANCEs 117 The Montreal Convention had concluded that eliminating Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) would be a necessary measure to protect the ozone layer so crucial to human and plant life on earth but endangered by numerous substances that deplete it. Wing Commander Manoj Kumar, in his landmark study, charts out the challenge posed by the extensive use of ODS in the legacy systems of the armed forces and, at the same time, the challenges posed by the appropriate responses as they concern the Indian armed forces. His work forms part of the project on “Environmental Security and the Armed Forces” at this Centre. 8. GEO-poLITICS of THE GULF 1971-1991 151 The British Empire, the sole superpower, even though it was declining, in the early decades of the 20th century, had arbitrarily rearranged the traditional regimes and national boundaries when oil was being discovered in the desert regions on either side of the Gulf. In due course, this was to lead to a major impact on the geo-politics and security of the Gulf when the United States replaced Britain as the Anglo-Saxon superpower. The West became even more worried about the rival superpower, the Soviet Union, whose borders impinged on the littoral V AIR POWER Journal Vol. 5 No. 2, SUMMER 2010 (April-June) CONTENTS of the Gulf from the north. Commodore M.R. Khan, IN, examines the evolving geo-politics of the region consequent to the withdrawal of the British from East of Suez and the rise of American strategy as oil became a weapon after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. ERRATA The Editor of Air Power Journal noted the following errors in Vol.5, No.1, Spring 2010 (January – March) issue 1. On the front cover one of the contributors instead Wing Commander M K Sharma it is wrongly mentioned as Wing Commander S K Sharma. 2. On the contents page no. iv the contributor for the article Cyber Space Vulnerabilities and Challenges: Threats to National Security Dynamics is Wg Cdr M K Sharma and not Wing Commander S K Sharma. 3. The article Cyber Space Vulnerabilities and Challenges: Threats to National Security Dynamics was contributed by Wg Cdr M K Sharma and not Col S K Sharma. Wg Cdr M K Sharma is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi Errors are regretted. AIR POWER Journal Vol. 5 No. 2, SUMMER 2010 (April-June) VI EDItor’S NOTE Looking back at the history of the Indian Air Force (IAF) one would come across two significant, even if small, events. One was the evolution of close air support which evolved in 1936 while No1 Squadron, the only one at that time constituting the Air Force, operated against the tribal rebellion. This was to set the thinking and pace of the concept of support to the ground forces and was refined with the passage of decades of advances in technology and growth of the Air Force.