Armed with a variety of systems and mechanisms, the country’s air defence is potent enough to guard against enemies from the sky.
The successful Balakot surgical strike of February 26, 2019, was important for more reasons than one. Among other things, it highlighted the importance of Air Defence (AD) in the security of a country from aerial attacks.
The Balakot surgical strike was successful as India could breach Pakistan’s Air Defence, which is dependent mostly on American equipment and is formidable. Our Intelligence and AD systems had gathered accurate information about their Air Defence. With the use of deception to confuse the Pakistan AD network, good use of AWACS for command and control of attacking fighters and for monitoring Pakistan fighters, smart use of Air-to-Air refuelers for mid-air refuelling of our strike fighters, use of smart bombs for accurate targeting and with the display of professionalism by our best trained pilots, we could surprise the Pakistani Air Defence and without any loss to our aircrafts achieved destruction of targets deep inside Pak territory.
Air Defence involves employment of a combination of passive and active measures which are required to reduce or when possible, nullify enemy air attack. Air Defence depends upon integrating many factors and is a complex process. Sensors, weapons systems like missiles, real time and secure communication, and finally real time data transfer are the elements that make up AD. The effectiveness of AD depends on its surveillance and early warning systems so that our forces have enough time to react. The overall responsibility of Air Defence as per the Union War Book lies with the Indian Air Force (IAF). Different Air Defence Control Zones based in various geographical areas exercise control within their respective areas.
Air defence includes area defence and point defence, both requiring different types of weapon systems. In point defence, strategically, politically and financially important national assets, including nuclear facilities, are defended from aerial threats.
Ground-based AD systems play a crucial role in defending a country’s air space. Air Defence can be said to be the goalkeeper of the skies. The Indian Air Force is right now struggling to maintain its fighter squadron strength. In such a scenario, the role of AD systems becomes very crucial. India is currently developing a multi-layer AD system, which would ensure successful interception of incoming aerial threats. India’s AD system would consist of the following four elements:
A. Ground-based Control and Reporting systems: This should have the ability to detect an attacker at the earliest possible time. Early warning is the answer to this requirement and is achieved through ground-based systems such as radars of the Army, Navy and Air Force, even civil radars, Aerostats, and Mobile Observation Posts (MOPs).
Airborne Early Warning Systems or AWACS is more effective as it has greater flexibility, gives significant early warning, and detects threats at greater distances. As airborne platform can scan larger areas for surveillance, so it provides greater defence in depth. Presently, we do have IL-78 based AWACS and they proved quite effective in Command-and-Control role during the Balakot surgical strike.
B. Communications: The most vital element of AD is integrated and secured communication network, which employs various links such as satellites, landline, optical, microwave, and High Frequency radio. Information from all sensors of Army, Navy, Air Force and civil systems in the form of data, voice, images, and real time video in digital mode is transmitted to command post and can be analysed and then redistributed to all users.
C. Electronic Warfare (EW): AD operations are vulnerable to electronic warfare as they rely on sensors to provide real time information. Therefore, all radars and communications links are designed to resist EW measures. ECM (electronic countermeasure) and ECCM (electronic counter-countermeasure) are employed for this protection but transmission discipline is equally important even in peacetime.
D. The weapon systems: The weapon system has two components, viz. fighter aircrafts and surface-to-air missile defence systems. Fighter aircrafts are mainly used as interceptors and for Combat Air Patrol. Surface-to-air defence weapon systems consist of multi-layer AD systems. Right now, we have a good short-range interception and very short-range interception capability. We are developing a potent long-range interception capability through our IBMD (Indian Ballistic Missile Defence) programme, and for intermediate interception, we have planned the induction of the S-400 system from Russia. The four components of Weapon Systems are:
1. Long-range Interception: Indian Ballistic Missile Defence (IBMD) Programme
2. Intermediate Interception: S-400 Triumf (future induction)
3. Short-range Interception: Akash Air Defence System and similar systems
4. Very Short-range Interception: MANPADS and Anti- Aircraft Guns.
The long range-interception of IBMD program is an initiative to develop and deploy a multi-layered ballistic missile defence system to protect India from ballistic missile attacks. Introduced in light of the ballistic missile threat from Pakistan and China, it is a double-tiered system consisting of two land and sea-based interceptor missiles, namely the Prithvi Air Defence (PAD) missile for high altitude interception and Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile for lower altitude interception. PAD is an anti-ballistic missile developed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere (exo-atmospheric). It has an operational range of 300 km – 2000 km. It has a maximum interception altitude of 80 km. It is designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in their intermediate cruising phase. With a maximum speed over Mach 5, PAD is fast enough to hit intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
The Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile for lower altitude interception is an anti-ballistic missile designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in the endo-atmosphere at an altitude of 30 km (19 mi). It is for those targets which somehow get past PAD. It is a secondary layer which compliments PAD.
Intermediate interception or S-400 Triumf is a long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system to be acquired by India from Russia as a result of a $ 5.43 billion contract. Also referred to as SA-21Growler, this system is for the Indian Air Force (IAF) and will help in further enhancing our air defence (AD). The delivery of the first regimental set of S-400 Triumf ‘SA-21 Growler’ air defence systems is likely to be at the end of 2021 and is expected to be completed ahead of 2025. This system has the capability to detect and destroy high and low targets, and also form an impenetrable grid of missiles. This system, which has four different types of missiles with ranges between 40 km, 100 km, 200 km and 400 km, can be deployed in a very short time.
Barak-8 is a long-range anti-air and anti-missile naval defence system developed jointly by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India. The Indian Army inducted a variant of Barak-8 missile to meet its requirement for a medium-range surface-to-air missile. The naval version of this missile has the capability to intercept incoming enemy cruise missiles and combat jets targeting its warships at sea. It would also be inducted into the Indian Air Force, followed by the Army.
In the short and medium-range interception (less than 100 km) segment, the Indian Army and Indian Air force operate a variety of systems. These mainly include Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAM) like Akash SAM, S-125 Pechora, Spyder AD system, etc.
Akash is a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile defence system developed by the DRDO and the missiles are produced by Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad. The missile system can target aircraft up to 45 km away, at altitudes up to 18,000 m. It has the capability to neutralise aerial targets like fighter jets, cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles as well as ballistic missiles.
S-125 Pechora is a surface-to-air missile system of Soviet origin. For a very long time, this system has been the backbone of Indian Air Force’s air defence but needs to be replaced urgently due vintage. This system is 60 years old.
The SPYDER is an Israeli short and medium-range mobile air defence system. It is a low-level, quick-reaction surface-to-air missile system capable of engaging aircraft, helicopters, unmanned air vehicles, drones, and precision-guided munitions. It provides air defence for fixed assets and for point and area defence for mobile forces in combat areas.
The very short-range interception segment includes MANPADS (Man-Portable Air Defence Systems) and anti-aircraft guns. The 9K38 Igla is a Russian/Soviet man-portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile system. The 9K35 Strela-10 ̛is a highly mobile, visually aimed, optical/infrared-guided, low-altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system. The FIM-92 Stinger is a man-portable air-defence system that operates as an infrared homing SAM. The 2K22 Tunguska is a Russian-tracked self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon armed with a surface-to-air gun and missile system. The Bofors 40 mm gun, often referred to simply as the Bofors gun, is an anti-aircraft gun used by the Army.
With the induction of the 4th and 5th generation aircrafts in all Air Forces the world over, which have a better stealth characteristic and use smart stand-off weapons, complexities of Air Defence have increased manifold. The advent of drones and their use in offensive /defensive and surveillance roles has further added to the challenges faced by AD elements. Drones are small in size, very easy to operate, cheap compared to other weapons with very negligible radar signature, and therefore, are difficult to detect. Hence, drones are very effective in combat role, so effective AD systems need to be developed for these new threats. India has a unique geography as we have high mountain ranges in the North and the North East, desert in the West and coastal regions and plains in the South. AD deployment and tactics requirements are different in mountainous terrain where we are face-to-face with both our adversaries. AD in mountainous region is a complex activity and presents hurdles like difficulty in installation/locating the radars, hill shadows, etc
The Indian Ballistic Missile Defence programme is progressing as planned. Our requirement of intermediate interception will be fulfilled by acquisition of S-400 Triumf, and we have manufactured many indigenous missile systems. We have good control and reporting systems along with AWACS and we are progressing well in the field of defence against drones. Therefore, we can confidently state that Indian Air Defence is potent enough to protect the Indian airspace from its adversaries.
*The writer is an Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and Shaurya Chakra awardee and retired as SAASO from Maintenance Command, Nagpur, in 2017. He landed Antonov An-32 aircraft on High Altitude Advanced Landing Grounds (HAALGs) in Daulat Beg Oldi, Fukche and Nyoma.
