Good to have a 90% developed system on time than having 100% after it loses relevance: IAF chief

NEW DELHI: With countries developing new defence systems at a faster pace amid ongoing conflicts, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal (ACM) A P Singh has a word of advice for Indian defence agencies involved in research and development (R&D): they must “innovate at the speed of relevance”.“We need to increase the speed because the system has to come in before it becomes irrelevant. While we build the systems today, we must be doing R&D on systems of tomorrow. It is good to have, maybe 85-90% capability of the system on time than to wait for that 100% and delay it beyond its relevance period,” the IAF chief stressed while speaking at a recent seminar co-hosted by think-tank CAPSS and Indian Military Review publication here.Addressing senior military officials, IAF chief said for any modern aerial threat, complete domain awareness is key, and there should be “total coordination” among the three services. “We have seen what happens… if you don’t have domain awareness, you don’t know where your people are and where others are. We’ve seen what happened to F-15s (US fighter jets) in Kuwait. The fratricide part. So, we cannot afford to have things like that,” ACM Singh said. He was referring to the incident on March 1 in which “three US F-15E Strike Eagles went down over Kuwait due to an apparent friendly fire”, according to the US CENTCOM.He also highlighted the importance of drones, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and counter-UAS. “There is no denying that the battlefield has shifted. We are shifting totally from very concentrated air power to a sort of decentralised and autonomous power. So, all rules of air power will apply when you use UAS. And they are no more eyes in the sky. They are like claws in the sky now,” he said.Recalling IAF’s key role during Op Sindoor, Singh said, “I think we did reasonably well in Op Sindoor. And that happened because there was coordination…Without having IACCS (Integrated Air Command and Control System) as a nerve centre, whether it was counter-UAS, counter-weapon or counter-aircraft, it wouldn’t have been possible.”