Urgent Need to Modernise Air Force Highlighted

, The Minister of State for Defence Shri M M Pallam Raju has said that current practise of bilateral and multilateral air exercises with nations around the globe is a strategy that enhances our exposure, exhibits our capabilities and leads to a better understanding of coordinated effort in world i.e. getting interdependent and facing crises from the scourge of terrorism and rising demand of global security and peace-keeping efforts. 
 
Delivering Air Chief Marshall P C Lal Memorial lecture on Status and Strategy : Future of Aerospace in India in Delhi today he said there is an urgent need to increase the force and modernize it if we are to truly mature into a trans-continental force capable of playing a role of safeguarding the economic and strategic interest of the nation. Shri Raju said the parallel utilisation of the private sector's capabilities for strengthening our defence sector also needs sustained nurturing and encouragement. 
 
Referring to Aerospace Defence Command, the Minister said many defence operations rely on space-based sensors and the option of having an Aerospace Defence Command would certainly help the forces in better surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking. He said India has been playing an active role in discussions on the cooperative use of outer space through deployment of space-based disaster management capabilities and could play a key role in collaborative structures that tackle threats to the well being of a nation. 
 
The Minister was of the opinion that with the nature of warfare changing more in last 15 years than in the previous 150 years, aerospace power has come to occupy a dominant position. He said, in fact, the 21st century would belong to aerospace power. 
 
Shri Raju said a robust programme is urgently required to transform the IAF into a dominant space power. The Minister said although the idea for setting up an aerospace command was initially proposed by the IAF in the late 1990s, apparently the Chinese downing a satellite with allegedly a missile fired from the ground could have proven to be a catalyst to further the argument for an aerospace command. 
 
He said the justification for an aerospace command may also be due to the massive growth of India's space programme in recent years, with its ever-growing reliance on the space-based communication satellites that sustain its information and communication technology assets. 
 
Referring to the nation's aeronautical manufacturing capabilities the Minister of State for Defence said the need of the hour is for better and more focused efforts of project management to be able to deliver to the functional satisfaction of our forces. The Minister was of the opinion that strict discipline has to be maintained in adhering to deadlines with better coordination with the users, namely the armed forces. 
 
Shri Raju said an audit by the IAF of its unutilized airfields and airstrips had encouraged the ministers and the officials of Civil Aviation and Defence to sit together to evolve a mechanism for the optimum utilisation of the nation's assets towards enabling the growth of the civil sector. He said better coordination and frequent dialogue between the Ministries of Defence and Civil Aviation is important to resolve such issues as resolvable issues need not be obstacles to economic growth.