Need to develop and integrate space, electronic warfare and cyber capabilities with manned aircraft for air dominance: Lt Gen Shukla

Stating that the quality of airpower will determine victory or defeat in any future fight, Former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Army Training Command, Lt Gen Raj Shukla said that towards this end, it was imperative to integrate manned aircraft with unmanned platforms, space, cyber and electronic warfare (EW) capability.

“In order to achieve air superiority, the adversary kill chains that we have to defeat are very complex. And the instruments to defeat these enemy kill chains are EW, space, cyber, information, dominance, stealth and now AI,” he said while speaking at the Military Literature Festival in Chandigarh on Friday. AI is giving you automated threat detection, automated identification.

“Just look at the electromagnetic spectrum. It consists of radars, stealth, jamming. You have to protect the spectrum and you have to attack it. And this is exactly what happened in Operation Sindoor, which was a resounding victory for India. It was the system level integration which was important,” he said.

Stating that platform level integration was very important, he said that without these “wraparound technologies”, manned aircraft would be of very little utility in modern world. "If we do not invest 50 to 60 per cent of our budget in these wraparound technologies, these piloted platforms will not be very effective," he said.

“We have to make a decisive push towards system level integration. And therefore, if we are serious about theatre commands, the first two commands which must be given combatant command status and upgraded are space and cyber. It is so obvious because their capacities they will lubricate air power and everything else,” he said.

Air power, he said, has to play out in theatrised structures, because theatrisation is not about air power. It's about giving theatre commanders a quasi-diplomatic role, shaping areas beyond you. Theatrisation is a far bigger argument and air power is phenomenally important, he added.

Referring to the air strikes by the Israel and the US on Iran a few months ago, he said that such missions were not possible without stealth, EW and space capabilities. “These are not non-kinetic elements. They are deadlier than kinetic. And when everything comes together, you have the classical dismantling of integrated air defence and command and control nodes.

Pointing out that the missions were led by the F-35 stealth fighters, Lt Gen Shukla said that without stealth capability, you simply cannot operate in contested envelopes. So acquisition of such stealth should be our foremost priority. “Stealth was beating air defence hands down. Stealth, survivability and whatever goes around it, signature management, electronic warfare, tactic techniques and procedures,” he said. “We have to start thinking of long growing stealth. 25 years from now that can strike the Chinese mainland,” he added.

Lt Gen Shukla said that the Chinese have a formidable rocket missile force and our cities are at risk. "Space is supremely important to detect missile launches and we have to develop the capability to intercept ballistic and hypersonic missiles." He said that we need dedicated military satellites, not just for imagery and communications, but also for EW, for cyber warfare.