IAF brass to discuss operational strategies, new technologies

New Delhi, April 12

New technologies that can define future wars are scheduled to be discussed by top commanders of the Indian Air Force (IAF) at the weeklong ‘Air Force commanders’ conference’.

The event, which will be held between April 15 and 21, will be a brain-storming session.

In a statement, the IAF said the conference “aimed at addressing the issues of operational capabilities in the times to come. A series of discussions would be conducted over a period of three days to address strategies and policies related to capabilities that would give the IAF a significant edge over its adversaries”. The conference assumes significance as the IAF is working towards having threat-assessment based artificial intelligence (AI) and use the upcoming technology to train pilots to assess their activities while flying planes.

“The IAF is working towards a system of automated threat analyses based on the AI. This improves situational awareness for monitoring threats. It (AI) can bring enormous changes in the way air wars are fought,” IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria had said at a seminar on April 5.

The IAF is already backing a programme for “manned-unmanned teaming”, which means an unmanned fighter jet will be part of a patrol of fighter jets in future war scenarios. A prototype of design was unveiled at the Aero-India in Bengaluru in February. The US and UK are other countries that have plans for such unmanned fighter jets. — TNS