Hummingbird News Desk
NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH, 8 OCT: In a historic step for the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Central government has approved the creation of a new branch, called the Weapon Systems (WS) branch. The creation of WS branch would entail unification of all weapon system operators under one entity dedicated to the operational employment of all ground-based and specialist airborne weapon systems.
The branch would encompass operators in four specialised streams of Surface-to-Surface missiles, Surface-to-Air missiles, Remotely Piloted Aircraft and Weapon System Operators in twin/multi-crew aircraft. The branch will contribute immensely by enhancing the war fighting capability of the Indian Air Force.
In a statement, Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari said in Chandigarh on Saturday that IAF is also planning on induction of women Agniveers starting next year.
Delivering his address at the air force station in Chandigarh on the occasion of 90th anniversary celebrations of the IAF, Chaudhari said that the key to success in multidomain operations is to have flexible, robust and redundant command and control structures which will allow a joint force to dominate across domains.
“No single service can win a war on its own. Work is in progress to enhance jointness among the three services,” he said.
On the occasion, a new pattern of combat uniform for IAF personnel was launched.
On creation of a weapon system branch, he said this is the first time since Independence that a new operational branch is being created.
“Creation of this branch would result in savings of more than Rs 3,400 crore due to reduced expenditure on flying training,” he said.
The IAF chief noted that advent of drones, swarm drones, hypersonic weapons, and space-based ISR systems has added a new dimension to war fighting.
“To effectively handle the full spectrum, artificial intelligence is being used for a quicker decision making and analysis of big data. I am happy to report that several projects are well underway to utilise the potential of automation, data analytics, and artificial intelligence to transform our operational philosophy,” he said.
Tags: #WeaponSystemsBranch #IndianAirForce #Centre #SpaceBasedISRSystem #WomenAgniveers
