A webinar & Virtual expo on “Air & Missile Defence” was organised by Indian Military Review and the Center for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOWS) on 11-12 12 June 2021. The topic has gained importance since the armed forces are going through a process of reorganization and creation of the Integrated Air Defence Command (IADC).
The themes of eight sessions included emerging technologies and industry capabilities, air threat, integrated air defence battle, communications for the air defence battle, research & development (R&D) and ‘atmanirbharta’ in air defence.
Inaugural Session
Welcome Address. Lt Gen Sunil Srivastava, Director, CENJOWS gave the opening remarks with the salience of Air & Missile Defence in protection of national assets and during both defensive and offensive operations. He stressed that the deliberations were important especially in view of emerging challenges with new weapons, war fighting concepts and impending establishment of IADC.
Inaugural Address. Lt Gen AP Singh, Director General Army Air Defence (AAD) gave the inaugural address and talked about air and missile threats, which, unlike in the past, have become potent and unpredictable. He highlighted the following issues:-
We are experiencing rapid change in technology in sensors and air defence weapons systems. In particular the stealth technology and unmanned vehicles present a formidable challenge.
Air defence equipment cost intensive and needs to be replaced in a phased manner, bearing lifecycle costs in mind.
Legacy equipment, therefore, needs to be sustained and upgraded.
Communication is the bed rock of air defence operations, which should be integrated, instant and real time.
The control of operations needs decentralization with distributed responsibility.
Work is in progress by both, Army and Air force to collate and present inputs of all sensors on one integrated platform.
Industry should offer solutions to upgrade/ modify legacy weapons.
Special Address. Air Mshl SP Wagle, Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (DCIDS) (Capability Development), gave a special talk. He mentioned that the current phase of reorganization into IADC would end the hitherto single service fragmented approach to air and missile defence. He highlighted the following issues:-
The concept of operations and training has to change with integrated air defence operations.
To counter the emerging air and missile defence challenges, new weapons have either been acquired or are in process of being procured by the three services to beef up our air defence in all areas.
Rapid development of weapon technology means faster obsolescence of existing weapons. This poses a challenge in view of budget constraints.
Present day threat comprises a mix of disruptive and low technology weapons.
In the current warfighting scenario, even a weak country possessing low tech weapons can challenge a stronger nation.
Expensive missiles/ weapons cannot be viable options to intercept / neutralize the low-tech weapons.
Since traditional threats will continue to exist with non-traditional threats, we have to develop capability to tackle both.
Industry’s R/D should keep focus on the current threats.
Use of Artificial Intelligence can shorten the OODA loop and enable safe operations without fratricide.
Access new technology to neutralize new threats such as unmanned / Hypersonic weapons and cruise missiles.
Besides active measures, passive measures and decoys still have great relevance.
Collaborative and joint approach by all stake holders in air defence is the way ahead.
Capacity of Indian Industry. Col KV Kuber, Director Defence & Aerospace, gave out the Industry Perspective. He said that Indian Industry had acquired skill and capacity to build sensors, missiles and tactical weapons and their ammunition for the armed forces. Several indigenous industries like Tata Advanced Systems, Adani, Reliance, Bharat Dynamics, Kalyani Group, BEL, BDL, etc, the have technology and capacity to meet the India’s air defence needs. But, still a lot needs to be done especially to tackle emerging threats in unmanned vehicles, hypersonic, stealth and cyber and electromagnetic domains.
Sessions and Speakers
Air Mshl Anil Chopra, Director Centre for Air Power Studies, chaired Session 2, the theme of which was Industry Capabilities. Ravi M, Bharat Dynamics Ltd. spoke on the work being carried out by BDL to manufacture missiles and the technologies available to them. Rann Marom, VP Business Development India, Rada Electronic Industries, spoke on his company’s capabilities, Abhishek Agarwal, Sr Manager, Saarloha Advanced Materials spoke on “Making India Self-reliant in Defece and Aerospace.”
Air Vice Marshal Makarand Ranade, ACAS Ops (Space), Air HQ chaired the session, the theme of which was “Contours of the Air Threat”. Gp Capt S Dhankhar, from Air Ops Branch, Air HQ spoke on “The Threat from Stand-off and Precision Attack.” Col Rajneesh Suyal, Col Weapons & Systems, Army Design Bureau spoke on “Emerging Threat from UAVs/ Drones.” Cdr Gokul Suresh, Cdr Aircraft Acquisition, ACNS (Air), Naval HQ spoke on “The Air & Missile Threat to Naval Assets.”
Air Vice Marshal PK Srivastava, former Director Bharat Dynamics Ltd and VP L&T chaired the session, whose theme was “Emerging Air Defence Technologies.” Gp Capt KB Mathews, Gp Capt Ops AD GE, Air HQ spoke on “Challenges of Integrated AD Battle and Air Space Management.” Col HK Parashar, of Army Air Defence Directorate spoke on “Low level threat in the Tactical Battle Area and its neutralisation.” Cmde Alok Ananda, Cmde Naval Ops, Naval HQ spoke on “The Air Defence Battle at Sea.”
This was followed by a Special talk by Lt Gen Rajeev Sabharwal, former SOC-in-C on “Communications: A decisive catalyst for the realisation of an Integrated Air Defence Command.”
This was followed by another Special Talk by Lt Gen (Dr) VK Saxena, former DG Army Air Defence, on “Missiles & Strategic Systems.”
Another session on “Emerging Air Defence Technologies” was chaired by Brig Jagdeep Dahiya, former Commander Air Defence Brigade. Gp Capt Saurabh Gupta, of Air Defence Branch, Air HQ spoke on “Lessons from recent aerial engagements in regional conflicts.” Col R Sathya Narayanan, of Army Air Defence Directorate gave a talk on “Lessons for ground-based air defence engagements in contemporary conflicts.”
A session on “Research & Development” was chaired by Air Mshl Rajeev Sachdeva, former DCIDS (Ops), HQ IDS. Sheik Althaf, Scientist G, LRDE, DRDO gave a talk on “Latest developments in AD Radar.” PK Tewari, Scientist F, DRDL, Hyderabad spoke on “Missile-based AD weapon systems.” Dr PN Dwivedi, Scientist F, RCI, DRDO, Hyderabad gave an “Overview of Ballistic Missile Defence.”
The last session on “Atmanirbharta in Air Defence” was chaired by Lt Gen Kuldeep Singh, former DG Army Air Defence. Air Vice Mshl Narmdeshwar Tiwari, ACAS (Plans), Air HQ spoke on “Ongoing and planned procurements and indigenous efforts.” Cdr Inder Kumar Singh, Dte of Staff Requirements, Naval HQ spoke on “Ongoing and planned procurements and indigenous efforts.”
Air Mshl LK Malhotra, former SASO Eastern Air Command gave the Valedictory Address. Lt Gen Sunil Srivastava, Director, CENJOWS gave the Closing Remarks and Maj Gen Ravi Arora, Chief Editor Indian Military Review gave the Vote of Thanks.
Key Issues Needing Attention
Some key issues which came to the fore during the deliberations by the speakers were: –
Air Defence faces omni present and multifarious threats, from unmanned vehicles, hypersonic weapons, cruise missiles. What should be the Air Defense response to counter these multifarious threats?
Comments. Neutralizing multifarious and complex threats is a challenge. A multi-layered defence and joint network-centric approach can provide credible detection and defence against the aircraft threats. Presently, there is no credible defence against the hypersonic missiles/ glide vehicles. Russian S-400 AD system which will be inducted in India has the capability to intercept hypersonic vehicles as well as ballistic and cruise missiles. However, as defence technology progresses, counter measures will emerge. Technologies such as directed energy weapons, particle beams and other non-kinetic weapons will be likely options for an effective defence against hypersonic missiles.
The air threat particularly in the Tactical Battle Area is complex and challenging.
Comments. The integrated realtime air situation picture will enable quick reaction against the multifarious threats in the TBA while ensuring the safety of own aircraft. Secure communications with redundancy will have to be ensured.
A low technology adversary too can present a challenge to a technologically superior nation.
Comments. Use of relatively cheap rockets and unmanned vehicles in the recent conflicts has brought focus on these weapons. An integrated air picture from the visual and electronic sensors and use of combination of hard and soft kill options would provide effective defence against these threats. Presently, Israeli Iron Dome type of systems are the only answer for the unguided rockets, which are also effective against unmanned platforms. But it is not cost-effective against unguided rockets. R&D for cheaper non-kinetic, multi-use options must continue to neutralize such threats.
It is not possible to change/ replace all legacy weapons due budgetary constraints.
Comments. Upgradation/ modification of the existing weapon systems will ensure that we continue using them with the modern weapon systems.
How do we tackle the emerging ISR and combat drone threats that manifest in different sizes and shapes ranging from very small to large and with less detectability due to low RCS and low velocity?
Comments. For unmanned platforms, a combination of defensive actions like Kinetic and Directed Energy weapons and other non-kinetic measures will have to be employed to neutralize them. DRDO is alive to the challenge. It has already developed an anti-drone system to tackle the drone threats. More anti-drone solutions will emerge in due course with the ongoing iDEX innovations.
Will futuristic Integrated Air Defence Command shorten the OODA loop?
Comments. Real time integrated air situation picture with identification will be available to air defence units at all times. This will ensure that all air borne threats are challenged, diverted or destroyed by suitably chosen air defence weapons without any loss of time.
How will a common air picture be ensured to fight air defence battle?
Comments. All sensors of the three Services and civil agencies will be integrated through IACCS, which carries out multi-sensory tracking and generates a collated composite air picture with identification of all detections for an integrated air and missile defence.
How centralized command and control and decentralized execution of operations will be ensured by the IADC?
Comments. IACCS of Indian Air Force will be linked in real time with Akashteer communication of the Indian Army and Trigun of Indian Navy. This will ensure that all speech and data exchange will take place between them in real-time at designated hierarchy. As a result of this, it will be possible to have centralized control of operations while allowing decentralized execution of tasks.
At present common training of the air defence personnel of Army, Navy and Air force is not carried out.
Comments. Syllabus relevant to the role of each Service should be formulated. This is important to develop common understanding of the air defence processes and procedures.
Why did Armenia suffer heavy losses as compared to Azerbaijan in Nagorno – Karabakh conflict? What are lessons for us?
Comments. Employment of passive defence measures such as camouflage, dispersal of vital assets, use of decoys, blackout and firefighting are relevant against both manned and unmanned threats, since it is still not easy to strike or collect ISR data when target area is well camouflaged. Armenia ignored this vital principle and suffered heavy losses. These measures are relevant in our context too.
Adversaries will use of Cyber and EW measure to blunt our air defences.
Comments. Adversaries may precede attacks by disrupting our command-and-control network and jamming/ saturating our sensors. We, therefore, must train and frequently exercise our operators to discern and operate using alternate measures of communication and detection and employ anti-jamming measures to burn through and detect the threats.
Networks and Communications for Integrated AD Command.
Lt Gen Rajeev Sabharwal argued that the present communication architecture linking sensors, shooters and decision makers is platform centric, tightly coupled, linear and hierarchical, ie, very stove-piped. He stated that the requirement was to have loosely coupled smart entities, which are sensor/ shooter agnostic, akin to a “publish/ subscribe” topology. Such a system will be asynchronous in time & space, with data accessible/ available to the entitled user anywhere, anytime.
The system should have Low Probability of Interception (LPI), Low Probability of Detection (LPD) and Anti-Jamming features.
Networked links between Akashteer (IACCS at JADC) and Trigun (IACCS at MOC) were recommended. RASP should be available to Army and Naval users in real time. Applications should be network agnostic – IACCS, Akashteer, Trigun should be hosted at national level at Central Data Centres (CDC)/ Designated Service Data Centres and at the theatre level at Theatre Data Centres. There will be integrated data flow to CDS/ NCP. Data sharing mechanism between services data centres to be finalised, as also Common Security framework.
The present networking is only in the physical domain, but needs to be extended to the ‘Social Domain’ (ie any decision maker, any sensor, any shooter) in a “functional”, pan-India Integrated AD Comd. The decision making has to be collaborative.
The network integrates all physical domains (Land, Sea, Air, Space) – Inter- and Intra- domains. Sensors, Cloud, Decision Makers, Shooters (Independent of orgnisation Services) geographic locations, platforms.
AD entities of the 3 Services from tactical to strategic levels must be integrated. IAF, Navy and Army should migrate to NFS as media. NFS Nodes will be linked through voice switches and data centres of services.
Seamless intra-Service communications demand common equipments and trained manpower.
All applications should run on AI engines and data analytics.
Recommendations
Following recommendations have been made:
Since the threat from drones is common to the three Services, a common strategy/plan should be worked out to neutralize these threats. Automation and Artificial intelligence will further make this threat potent. Own “swarming” counter-threats should be developed concurrently.
Communication of three Services should be linked for real time speech and data transfer at the designated level for centralized command and control and effective execution of air defence tasks.
Upgradation/ modification of the legacy air defence weapons should be taken up urgently.
A Joint Air defence directive should be issued before IADC becomes functional.
A relevant joint air defence training strategy should be formulated for the personnel of three Services.
Coordination should be carried out with DRDO and other research agencies to find viable solutions for the new and emerging low cost threats.
A strategy should be devised for neutralization of the ballistic/ cruise and hypersonic threats. Indigenous Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) and planned induction of NASAM, S-400 system will give capability to tackle these threats. Since the IADC will have the centralized air picture and wherewithal and trained personnel, IADC is the most suited for strategic missile defence.
IACCS links must be extended to the deployed army and naval sensors for generation of composite picture at the earliest.
The threat of stealth fighter/ bombers is a reality in our area, Hence, induction of low frequency/ quantum radars, which can detect such threats are needed particularly in the forward areas.
Army legacy AD weapons like L70, ZSU 23, and fire control radars should be modified/ upgraded to enable these to tackle the new emerging threats.
Both active and passive measures are important steps to neutralize/ divert the threats, even when the attacks are guided by high-tech navigational aids and targeting systems and carry PGMs.
Cyber and EW action on our command-and-control network and sensors in all probability will precede and/or occur during the manned and unmanned air attacks by the adversary Hence, continuous upgradation of anti-cyber and ECCM must be become part of training curriculum and be practised in the joint exercises.
IADC, when established, should be entrusted with ballistic missile defence since composite air situation is available in which BMD sensors too could be integrated to warn of the ballistic and cruise missile threats.
DRDO has displayed excellent capability in indigenous strategic missiles. We still need to develop long range, medium range, short and QRSAMs.
De-conflicting defensive counter-air responsibilities between proposed IADC and Theatre Commands calls for detailed deliberation.
Valedictory Address
Air Mshl LK Malhotra, covered the highlights of the whole r. He suggested that we need not reinvent the weapon systems. Wherever possible, we should seek transfer of technology and carry out indigenous manufacturing of the weapon systems.
