Senior Navy officer blames Air Force for ‘trust deficit’

NEW DELHI: By continuing to stress on a ‘do it alone’ command structure, the IAF has only harmed itself. It has resulted in a weakening of trust with the other two services who have attempted to resolve the issue by investing into integral air power

REAR ADMIRAL MONTY KHANNA , in the article

The Indian Air Force has harmed itself by opposing “theaterisation” and this has resulted in weakening of trust between it and the army and the navy, a top navy officer wrote in a new paper published by defence think-tank Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (Cenjows) on Friday in a rare criticism of one service by a serving senior officer in another.

The paper, titled ‘The IAF and Theaterisation – Misplaced Apprehensions,’ is a deep dive into the military’s approach towards enhancing so-called jointmanship and its progression toward theaterisation. Jointmanship refers to some degree of co-ordination and integration in terms of both strategy and execution across the three services. Theaterisation refers to placing under a Theatre Commander, specific units of the army, the navy, and the air force.

There is stiff resistance from the IAF to theaterisation, or setting up of integrated commands where the assets of all three defence arms would come under the operational control of a threestar officer from any of the three services, depending on the function assigned to that command.

“By continuing to stress on a ‘do it alone’ command structure, the IAF has only harmed itself. It has resulted in a weakening of trust with the other two services who have attempted to resolve the issue by investing into integral air power,” wrote rear admiral Monty Khanna in the eightpage paper. Cenjows was set up by the defence ministry over a decade ago.

The two-star admiral is currently posted at the prestigious Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, where he is the navy’s chief instructor.

Citing the examples of the navy and army deploying air assets, Khanna notes in the paper, “This chipping away of IAF roles will continue until the fundamental issue of trust is addressed. For doing so, the IAF would need to embrace the deepening of its integration with the other two services rather than back-pedal on this relationship.”