The renaming of the Indian Air Force to the 'Indian Air and Space Force' is on the anvil and could be approved by the Narendra Modi-led government any time soon.
Previously, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had underlined that the IAF should transform itself into a formidable aerospace force to meet future challenges.
"As students of military affairs and geopolitics, it is our duty to keep anticipating the nature of future wars. Steps are being taken by our adversaries towards military use of space. This is likely to have an adverse effect on our interests. We, therefore, need to identify and be fully prepared for the evolving security challenges," Singh had said during a public event last year.
Modern Warfare Shifting to Space
Additionally, Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari, the current IAF chief, has voiced his support for India to focus on acquiring defensive as well as offensive capacity in space.
During his speeches at various defence forums, Chaudhari has put a lot of thrust on capitalising on Mission Shakti's success.
Unlike India, countries like France, Russia, and the US have renamed their air forces "air and space forces," apparently realizing that future warfare would include the space domain.
For example,
the French Air Force is now the French Air and Space Force;
for Russia it is the Russian Aerospace Forces;
and the space arm of the US Air Force (UAF) is called the United States Space Force (USSF).
Against this background, military veteran, Group Captain Uttam Kumar Devnath, told Sputnik India that the IAF's proposed move to rename itself as IASF was on expected lines because future wars will be fought in space.
"All over the world, Air Forces are now obtaining more and more capability to operate from higher and higher altitudes. In the future, any air warfare will be fought not only at lower and middle altitudes but at very high altitudes," Devnath stated.
He mentioned that normally a military aircraft can fly up to a height of say 60,000-70,000 feet. However, all the air forces are developing technology wherein aircraft, rockets, or missiles - whether they are manned or unmanned will be flying at a height of 100,000 feet.
Similarly, the ex-IAF officer elaborated that air forces were now trying to develop technology and assimilate various tactical and strategic initiatives, by which they should be able to operate at the lower levels of space.
Combat Aircraft Set to Touch Lower Levels of Space
"At present, warplanes belonging to any air force on the planet function up to an elevation of 20 kilometers but militaries are now looking at a future wherein warfare will be fought at a height of 30 to 50 kilometers in the sky," Devnath pointed out.
Therefore, he suggested that the Indian Air Force is also thinking about expanding its space warfare capabilities, and the IAF in conjunction with DRDO and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), is spearheading this mission
According to him, India already has many satellites meant for use by the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and this number will see a manifold increase in the next 5-10 years.
IAF to Become India's Lead Agency for Space Warfare
"There should be a lead agency - somebody in India has to coordinate all these activities, especially if there is a war from space. Plus, India has acquired the capability to carry out a hard kill or a soft kill of an enemy satellite in space. On the other hand, India's enemies could cause damage to Indian satellites in case there is a war," Devnath underlined.
Though the DRDO and ISRO labs will develop the space warfare technologies for India's Armed Forces, it will be the IAF that will operate it cohesively, he stressed.
"That's why the trend worldwide is that Air Forces are the lead agencies and are renaming themselves as Aerospace Powers," Devnath concluded.