The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict is the first time we are witnessing the unfolding of “truly hybrid warfare” and is a reflection of complete multi-domain operations that are taking place, said Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Chief Marshal (ACM) V. R. Chaudhari on Tuesday while stating that there is a lot to learn from it.
“We are witnessing the use of drones, hypersonic weapons, aircraft of all sizes and types and ground forces all working in unison against the backdrop of economic sanctions and diplomatic heft,” ACM Chaudhari said in response to a question at 7th national leadership conclave of the All India Management Association. Further questioned on where the focus should be, he stated, “Is it only in hardware? Is it going to be through soft power. Is it going to be a multitude of all this. Primarily what it amounts to is to be able to reimagine, to reinvent, to be able to rededicate and retrain ourselves for future conflicts.”
Speaking on the ‘The future of air warfare: Securing the sky and beyond’, the Air Chief noted that traditionally, wars had been fought on land, at sea, in the air and to some extent, in space while in the past two decades, this spectrum had increased to encompass cyber and information domains. “The overarching effect of cyber and information on the conduct of conventional wars has created a new, hybrid and multi domain spectrum of conflict resulting in older tactics and strategies becoming passé.”
