India Moving Towards Network Centric Warfare Capability

India is rapidly moving towards developing network centric warfare (NCW) capability, as per a statement made by Vice Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal P V Naik.

“NCW is vital. You cannot survive today for long against a good adversary without this capability,” said Naik. Speaking to journalists after celebrating Independence Day with Indian airmen, he said that the Indian armed forces will have this capability by 2010-2011.

“At present we do not have it, we are just about network enabled. But we are in the process of developing this capability.”

Pioneered by the United States Department of Defence, NCW relies on computer processing power and networking communications technology to provide shared information of the battle space to armed forces. This shared awareness increases synergy for command and control, resulting in superior decision- making, and the ability to co-ordinate complex military operations over long distances for a war-fighting advantage.

Providing further details about India’s efforts towards network centricity, Air Marshal Naik said the backbone of this entire system will be a fibre optic-based network called ‘Air Force Network’ (AFNET), on which will be riding the Integrated Air Command and Control Systems (IACCS). IACCS will provide connectivity for all the airborne platforms and ground platforms. (PTI)