Recent use of drones in various conflicts has indicated their employability to achieve asymmetric gains. However, these have been in largely uncontested airspaces. The IAF approach to mitigate this imminent threat is through hard and soft kill options with indigenous solutions.

What has been achieved until now in the domain of network-centricity and data-linking, especially across domains, for instance, ground, air and space? Additionally, with cyber and electronic warfare emerging as new war domains, what steps are being taken to ensure the security of all assets and networks?

Digitisation in the IAF has been one of our key focus areas. The IAF pioneered this way back in 2006 with a secure PAN-India network. The IAF has invested heavily in Network-Centric Warfare applications for over a decade, and the effort has borne fruit. The IAF has a secure and reliable pan-India network (AFNET) which is the backbone of our Integrated Air Defence Command and Control system. AFNET enables multi-sensor data fusion covering the entire country and providing a real-time air situation picture to decision makers. We are upgrading such Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) via software defined networking keeping abreast of the latest global technologies. The IAF networks also host and link the electronic maintenance management system (e-MMS) and materials management system (IMMOLS), which are completely digitised for aircraft maintenance and sustenance chain processes. Both these enterprise-wide initiatives have resulted in significantly speeding up response and decision cycles.