INDIA MY JAAN's video: Indian Army vs Indian Air Force NO 1 CDS Bipin Rawat

IN A GRAPHIC: IS THE IAF JUST A ‘SUPPORT ARM’? India’s wars show that its air force has exerted a decisive edge on the outcome of land battles whenever it was deployed by the political executive Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat’s July 2 statement terming the Indian Air Force (IAF) a ‘support arm’ has triggered a controversy. For the IAF, which prides itself as a distinct strategic service, it is a realisation of its worst fears—it will be swallowed by the dominant army when the first two land-based theatre commands are set up by 2023. The debate over whether air or land power is supreme might be as old as air power itself. However, it is an academic debate in most major world militaries that have got their services to train, plan and operate jointly in theatre commands. China was one of the last countries to formalise theatre commands, integrating air and ground forces in 2016. India will be the last major military to restructure itself. Nearly 75 years after independence, the Indian armed forces, especially the army and air force, train, operate and fight separately. There is no concept of joint operations and planning, which has had debilitating consequences on the conduct of military campaigns. India’s military history shows that the IAF exerted a decisive role on the outcome of land battles whenever it was effectively used—in 1947, 1971 and 1999. When IAF fighters and bombers were kept out of the battle