Indian Air Force

The re-equipment of the Indian Air Force (IAF) for the medium- to long-term requires a careful look at the costs and technical problems associated with Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA). The country may gain from examining alternative means of achieving the benefits in capability offered by FGFA through the possibly cheaper hypersonic route, especially if pursued indigenously.

• Vivek Kapur
• March 09, 2012
• Issue Brief

F-35 is not an ideal choice because of the delay in its developmental schedule, a tight production line, prohibitive cost, India’s own efforts to jointly develop and produce a fifth generation fighter with Russia, and little technological or industrial benefits that would accrue.

• Laxman Kumar Behera
• November 23, 2011
• IDSA Comments

Faulty promotion policies and the unsatisfactory professional education of the officer corps deprive Indian military officers of the opportunity to master strategy and develop capacities for handling high level issues.

• Rumel Dahiya
• June 13, 2011
• Issue Brief

People in India have traditionally looked up to the Armed Forces. Corruption in the Armed Forces therefore militates against the spirit of service to the nation. It has to be cleansed wholesale, with effective mechanisms for protecting whistleblowers and taking swift action against the guilty put in place. Caesar’s wife must be beyond reproach.

• Rumel Dahiya
• November 01, 2010
• IDSA Comments

Supersession is too important an aspect of organizational existence to be dismissed lightly. It is a situation to be managed jointly by the organization and affected individual with the clear understanding that organizational interests are overriding. The Human Resources Management (HRM) approach aims to ensure that staffing manning of an organization effectively meets the quantitative and qualitative aspects at all times to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. An important element of HRM is Human Resource Planning (HRP).

• Suryakant Bal
• October 2010
• Journal of Defence Studies

The Services have been doctrinally fecund over the past decade, with each Service bidding to pursue relatively distinct campaigns, which would amount to lack of synergy and the whole failing to rise higher than the sum of its parts.

• Ali Ahmed
• August 16, 2010
• IDSA Comments

As an old fighter pilot, I would always pitch for a light, easily manoeuvrable, agile and relatively inexpensive fighter that delivers every time, generates high sortie rates and is easy to maintain and train on a day to day peace time schedule.

• Ramesh Phadke
• May 19, 2010
• IDSA Comments

Whereas employing Armed Forces may appear to be an attractive idea to control the naxal menace, the adverse effects of their long term commitment, particularly of the Army, need to be understood.

• Rumel Dahiya
• May 04, 2010
• Issue Brief

Modern aerospace power is the only instrument that would give the country an assured capability to project precision fire power at great distances with or without mid-air refuelling and AWACS support and therefore, continues to remain the best instrument for deterrence and instantaneous and calibrated response to emerging threats. Whatever India decides, it cannot but modernise its aerospace power.

• Ramesh Phadke
• April 2010
• Journal of Defence Studies

The defence minister is indeed correct that ‘sacrifices’ would have to be made but this time India should offer that privilege to the Pakistani Army.

• Ramesh Phadke
• April 05, 2010
• IDSA Comments