Volume 2  Number 1 ● Spring 2007 (January-March 2007)

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FUTURE OF AEROSPACE IN INDIA: STATUS AND STRATEGY

Status and Strategy: Future of Aerospace Power in India was the them of the annual “P.C. Lal Memorial Lecture” delivered by the Minister of State for Defence, Shri M. M. Pallam Raju in the memory of Air Chief Marshal P.C. Lal who was Chief of the Air Staff who led the IAF to victory in 1971. The lecture was organized by the Air Force Association on March 19, 2007  

AEROSPACE POWER AND INTEGRATED OPERATIONS

Aerospace Power and Integrated Operations is based on the address by Air Marshal N.A.K. Browne AVSM, VSM, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, IAF, at the inter international seminar on “Aerospace Power in the Coming Decades” attended by chiefs of air forces of 39 countries last February in New Delhi, hosted by the Chief of the Air Staff, Indian Air Force.

STRATEGIC ROLES OF AIR POWER THINK, PLAN, EQUIP AND TRAIN FOR IT

Group Captain A. S. Bahal VM, outlines how we need to think, plan, equip and equip for it in the future. Adequate force level is important in his view, but perhaps more crucial for exercising a strategic role is the thinking behind force employment.

INTERPRETING CHINA’S NATIONAL DEFENCE POLICY

Interpreting China’s National Defence Policy is complex simply because of the lack of transparency on the subject and the contrasting views of China and its military policy across the world. Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal  (Retd) carries out a comprehensive review of the main points that lead toward a better understanding of China’s defence policy, taking into account its White Papers issued from time to time.

OFFENSIVE AIR POWER IN THE HIGH MOUNTAINS

Nearly half of India’s 16,700 –km-long frontiers are situated in high mountains and nearly two-thirds of them at Himalayan heights. The Kargil War in 1999 once again brought forth the importance of warfare in such an environment, including severe political restrictions. Group Captain R.G. Burli VM, examines the role and challenges of employing offensive air power in that terrain, altitude and weather.

AWACS: THE PIVOT OF AEROSPACE POWER

Introduction of air borne warning and control systems have had a major impact on air warfare, perhaps with even greater salience than the introduction of radar in World War II. However, the issues does not appear to have been studied adequately. Wing Commander Atul Kumar Singh  VSM, explores various aspects of the role that AWACS play in modern warfare.

PAKISTAN’S DEFENCE SPENDING: SOME TRENDS

Lacks of transparency in Pakistan’s defence spending makes it difficult to fully grasp its meaning. Ms. Shalini Chawla in her article on Pakistan’s Defence Spending: Some Trends examines the trends in recent decades in a historical perspective and goes on to explore what it would cost Pakistan to maintain and build its military power in the light of publicly known arms acquisitions on concessional terms and other funding it has received since 2001 through extra – budgetary mechanisms.

THE ESSENCE OF COERCIVE POWER: A PRIMER FOR MILITARY STRATEGISTS

This essay is designed to provide the war-fighter with a basic and somewhat informal overview of coercion, emphasizing but not limited to, the coercive use of air power. Coercion is central to almost all military strategy, yet it is not often addressed in a systematic way in either military education or military doctrine due to a variety of reasons. In this article, Dr. Karl Mueller argues that it is nevertheless essential for the strategist – especially the air power strategist – to understand the essentials of military coercion, and in the process, dispels some of the “fog of theory” that often clouds this subject.