Centre approves creation of weapon system branch for IAF officers

Centre approves creation of weapon system branch for IAF officers

Centre approves creation of weapon system branch for IAF officers

Chandigarh : The Indian Air Force has established a new Weapon Systems Branch for its officers, which is aimed at unification of all weapon system operators in specialist ground-based systems and airborne platforms under a single stream. This is the first time since Independence that a new operational branch has been created in the air force.

“This will essentially be for manning of four specialised streams of surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles, remotely piloted aircraft and weapon system operators in twin- and multi-crew aircraft,” Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Choudhari said during his address at the Air Force Day parade here on Saturday. “Creation of this branch would result in savings of over Rs 3,400 crore due to reduced expenditure on flying training,” he added.

Stating that the traditional domains of land, sea and air have expanded to include space and cyber, the Air Chief said that we are increasingly seeing the convergence of all these domains into one continuum in the form of hybrid warfare. “The use of non-kinetic and non-lethal warfare to supplement kinetic means has changed the way wars will be prosecuted. Therefore, conventional systems and weapons will need to be augmented by modern, flexible and adaptive technology,” he said.

He said we need to accept the fact that tomorrow’s conflicts cannot be fought with yesterday’s mind-set and the ability to execute all missions in an environment of denial will increasingly be the basis of our training in the air force.