Col Mandeep Singh (retd)

At 0100 hours on 11 December 1971, 64 Air Defence (AD) Battery was asked by Commander 16 (Independent) Armoured Brigade to move a troop forward to provide AD to a tank column stuck across the Karir Nadi in the Shakargarh Bulge (during the Battle of Chakra as part of the overall Battle of Basantar) while trying to cross it during the attack on Dehira and Chakra villages. The troop was in action at the new location by first light and successfully warded off repeated attacks by Pakistan Air Force. The Battery, under command the Armoured Brigade, continued to provide AD to the Armoured Brigade during the Battle of Basantar. In recognition of its service, 64 AD Battery was awarded the battle honour Basantar River.

64 AD Battery was under command 16 (I) Armoured Brigade during the India-Pakistan War 1971, but its operational control was exercised through the Control & Reporting (C&R) channel. The Battery carried out all moves and deployments as per the tactical requirement, and as directed by the Armoured Brigade Commander, and yet it was the C&R network that controlled the gun’s fire. Not only did the system work well but no tank was lost to enemy air action during the entire battle.

This needs recollection as command and control of ground-based AD systems (GBADS) is debated in context of the AD Command. The proposed creation of AD Command was one of the first decisions announced by the newly appointed Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). To be headed by a three-star Indian Air Force (IAF) officer, the Command aims at integrating all the air defence resources to ensure ‘optimisation of resources’ and preventing fratricide.

One of the statements of CDS Gen. Bipin Rawat on the subject that stands out is: ‘If you have to ensure there is no fratricide, for every weapon system fired in the right time at the right aircraft, the command and control instructions should come from one entity. As of now it’s not,’ he is reported to have said. According to the Hindu newspaper of 2 January 2020, Gen. Rawat made this statement in a meeting held specifically to discuss the creation of Air Defence Command.

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The idea of creating an Air Defence Command is not new and has been tried out, with variations, by a number of countries but none of the leading military powers today have an Air Defence Command per se. While it may not be a reason enough for not having an AD Command, it does warrant a rethink over the question of creating an AD Command to have unitary command and control over all AD systems as the more important issue is—should the command and control instructions for AD resources come from one authority and if they do not, does it lead to sub-optimal utilisation of resources and fratricide?The an