India likely to set up unified Air Defence Command in October

India is moving towards setting up its new Air Defence Command (ADC), which will eventually be responsible for guarding the country’s airspace against hostile aircraft, missiles, helicopters and drones in an integrated manner, by October this year.

Sources say the headquarters of the ADC, which will bring together all the air defence (AD) weapon systems of the Army, Navy and IAF under its operational command, is likely to come alongside the Central Air Command at Allahabad (Prayagraj). It will be headed by a three-star general (Air Marshal) from the IAF.

Israeli SPYDER air defense system

Chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat had in January announced the ADC would be the first new joint command to be established as part of the long overdue process for integration among the three Services, which often pull in different directions.

India till now has only two unified commands, while there are as many as 17 single-Service commands (Army 7, IAF 7 and Navy 3). The first and the only theatre or “geographical” command was set up in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago in October 2001, while the “functional” Strategic Forces Command to handle the country’s nuclear arsenal came up in January 2003.

India (DRDO) and Israel (IAI)'s joint project MR-SAM system

Indigenous Akash SAM system, developed by DRDO

The ongoing plan is to also set up “geographical” theatre commands, which will include a maritime command in peninsular India, one or two commands (a northern one west of Nepal and an eastern one east of Nepal) to handle China, one or two commands on the western front with Pakistan (one in J&K and the other to include Punjab, Gujarat and Rajasthan), as was earlier reported by TOI.

Indigenous AAD ballistic missile interceptor, developed by DRDO

Though IAF is primarily responsible for the country’s air defence, the Army and Navy also have their own AD weapons with individual infrastructure and logistics chains.

The wide variety of AD weapons in the armed forces include the Israeli low-level Spyder quick-reaction surface-to-air missile (QR-SAM) systems (15-km range), the indigenous Akash area defence missile systems (25-km range) and the medium and long-range Barak-8 SAM systems (70 to 100-km range) jointly developed by Israeli Aerospace Industries and DRDO.

Indigenous PDV ballistic missile interceptor, developed by DRDO

IAF is now also slated to begin inducting five squadrons of the advanced S-400 Triumf missile systems from Russia from end-2021 onwards, under the $5.43 billion (Rs 40,000 crore) deal inked in October 2018.

With the S-400 systems, which can detect, track and destroy hostile strategic bombers, jets, spy planes, missiles and drones at a range of 380-km, India plans to boost its air defence coverage along the unresolved borders with China and Pakistan as well as around cities like New Delhi.