The Defence Ministry is working to restructure the armed forces to set up a new air defence command under the Indian Air Force (IAF) at Prayagraj by the second week of October 2020.
The Department of Military Affairs has hastened its work to prepare the structure of the command under an Air Force officer. Efforts are being made to announce the creation of the air defence command at Prayagraj on Air Force Day on October 8, 2020, as per government sources.
The air defence command has been proposed to be set up alongside the Central Command Headquarters of the IAF that controls important air bases including Agra, Gwalior and Bareilly. This comes amid India’s ongoing tensions with China.
Objective |
| The main aim of setting up a new air defence command is to combine the resources of the three services under one command and activate it to protect the air space of the country. |
Key Highlight
• The IAF's Vice Chief Air Marshal, HS Arora had done a study in this regard, which had suggested a structure of the proposed command comprising assets of all the three services.
• The Department of Military Affairs under Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat has been given the mandate to create the joint military commands along with theatre commands.
• The Chief of Defence Staff is also working to create a combined maritime command, which has been proposed to come up either at Kochi in Kerala or Karwar in Karnataka.
• The air defence command would combine the air defence assets of all three services- The Army, Indian Air Force and Indian Navy and jointly provide air defence cover to the country.
Background
The Chief of Defence Staff had clarified earlier that the he would not create any additional post at a three-star level for manning any of the new commands and that the new formations would be raised from the existing resources itself.
Besides this, a proposal for the acquisition of two new PHALCON Airborne Early Warning ad Control Systems from Israel and Russia has been placed before the Cabinet Committee on Security for the protection of the air space of the country. The Cabinet will soon announce its decision on the same.
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