Volume 2  Number 2 ● Summer 2005 (April-June 2005)

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Precision Strike and Its Influence on Future Wars

Precision strike technologies, capabilities and organisation to optimise them are making profound changes in the way modern wars are fought. Air Marshal V. Patney SYUSM PVSM AVSM VM (Retd), former Vice Chief of Air Staff, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Air Command, IAF, looks closely at precision strike and its impact on modern warfare.

RMA and Aerospace Technologies (Part I)

While revolutions in military affairs emerge from substantive changes in technology, systems, organisations and/or methods of warfare, what makes the current revolution in military affairs so critical is the unique impact of aerospace technologies in modern warfare. Air Commodore M. Matheswaran VM, examines the relationship between aerospace technologies and their influence in shaping the revolution in military affairs.

Kashmir, Covert Wars and Air Power

Air power has played a crucial role in counter-terrorism in recent times. However, in almost all such cases, combat power has been used essentially outside the home territory. Recognising this phenomenon, Air Commodore Jasjit Singh AVSM VrC VM (Retd), Director, Centre for Air Power Studies, reviews the role of air power in responding to covert wars through terrorism escalating to overt wars waged by Pakistan in Jammu & Kashmir since 1947 to draw some lessons for the future.

Air Power and Special Operations

Special operations acquired a new dimension with the introduction of air power and now they are unimaginable in any meaningful way without being integral to air power. Saikat Datta examines the relationship between special operations and air power in the current context.

Mackinder in The Aerospace Age

Air Marshal Anil Trikha PVSM AVSM VSM (Retd) explores the historical context in which the famous geopolitical ideas of British geographer Sir Halford Mackinder were shaped, the reasons why they have held sway for nearly a hundred years, and why they still continue to enjoy some support in the Western strategic community, despite being rendered obsolete almost when they were being articulated and progressively by aerospace capabilities.

Strategic Planning for The Air Force

The future of the US Air Force and the United States, Deborah L. Westphal, Richard Szafranski and Dr. Gregory S. Parnell believe, is too important to be left to long-range plans trying to react within uncertain future environments. To create future value for the nation by continually providing dominant air and space power, the US Air Force, they believe, must have a consistent strategic purpose and a dynamic, creative strategic-planning process continually seeking to understand future risks and opportunities. Strategic planning should be viewed as a means for creative strategy and product development and not the end product.

Shrinking, Flourishing or Both ? Global Defence Industry in Transition

The end of the Cold War has had a profound impact on the global defence industry leading to apparently contradictory trends where some industries are shrinking while others are flourishing, argues Deba Mohanty. The collaboration-merger process would have a profound impact on nations’ ability to procure military equipment in future.

Time : The Critical Dimension in War

Revolutions in military affairs have had many dimensions. But the current revolution, argues Captain Ajay Singh, has created a new dimension of war where adversaries would have to combat for time itself to complete their cycle of information acquisition, decision-making process and action in applying military power at the designated point to achieve desired effect. The side that works a tighter cycle than the other would emerge victorious