NEW DELHI: Air Chief Marshal A P Singh on Wednesday made a forceful case for jointness among the armed forces, asserting that no future war can be won by any single service acting alone.
"No future war is going to be fought by an individual service. All of us, whether we are in blues (IAF), whites (Navy), or OGs (Olive Green of the Army), or whichever colour, whether we are in allied services, we all have to fight together as one nation, and then only we will succeed," the Chief of Air Staff said.
Presiding over the commissioning of INS Malvan at the Karwar naval base, ACM Singh said the momentum this collective endeavour had gathered over the past four to five years, particularly since the creation of the Chief of Defence Staff post, would only strengthen.
"All of us will move forward together and bring greater glory to the nation," he said.
Turning the lens on his own service, the Air Chief held up the Navy's warship-building record as an example the IAF would do well to follow.
"I just hope that the other two services, especially the Indian Air Force, learn the lesson as to how the Indian Navy has been able to get this whole concept right, where you have your Indian Navy officers who are embedded in your shipbuilding right from the beginning," he said.
The remarks are significant on both counts. Among the three services, the IAF has been the most reticent about the theaterisation plan, which enjoys the backing of the Army and Navy.
ACM Singh had earlier cautioned against rushing into theatre commands, arguing that "disrupting everything" was ill-advised,and had instead proposed a joint planning and coordination centre in Delhi under the Chiefs of Staff Committee.
The IAF has also voiced misgivings about the geographical segmentation of air power, particularly given its depleted strength of 29 fighter squadrons against the sanctioned 42.
As reported earlier by TNIE, one proposal under consideration by the defence ministry envisages retaining scarce high-value assets such as Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS), aerial refuellers and electronic warfare aircraft under centralised national control at Air Headquarters in Delhi, rather than parcelling them out among individual theatre commands.
Three proposals on integrated theatre commands are currently before the defence ministry for vetting, after which they will go to the higher political leadership, including the Cabinet Committee on Security.
On indigenisation, ACM Singh was candid about the imperative of speed, cautioning that "technology delayed is technology denied", and pressed for swifter progress towards self-reliance in the aviation sector.
INS Malvan, the second of eight Mahe-class anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft (ASW-SWC) being built by Cochin Shipyard Limited, has around 80% indigenous content by value and is the seventh warship inducted by the Navy this year. It inherits the name of an earlier inshore minesweeper decommissioned in 2003 after 19 years of service.