IAF chief spells out vision to transition into future ready aerospace force

IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari visited the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) in Tamil Nadu's Wellington on Friday and told a group of officers about the IAF's vision to transition into a "contemporary and future ready aerospace force".

The IAF chief also highlighted the significant air power lessons derived from existing conflicts such as Russia-Ukraine war and Israel-Hamas conflict, the defence ministry said in a statement.

In his address to them, he also covered the challenges confronting the IAF, its capability development plan and jointmanship, it said.

He addressed the student officers from the Indian armed forces and friendly foreign countries undergoing the 79th Staff Course and the permanent staff of DSSC.

Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari "spelt out the transition of IAF into a contemporary and future ready aerospace force".

He reiterated the vision as spelt out in the IAF doctrine, which envisages an agile and adaptive air force to provide decisive aerospace power.

"The dominant role played by IAF during evacuation of Indian diaspora from conflict zones and during disaster relief operations was highlighted" by him, it said.

The IAF chief was also briefed on the ongoing training activities and the impetus to jointmanship at DSSC.

Meanwhile, in a post on X, the IAF congratulated ISRO on achieving a milestone in the area of reusable launch vehicle technology through the RLV LEX-02 landing experiment.

"Utilising the #IAF Chinook helicopter for its airlift and subsequent positioning at a predefined altitude and location, @isro successfully demonstrated the autonomous landing capability of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) 'PUSHPAK' as part of its RLV-LEX 2 mission.

"Airlifted to an altitude of 4.5 kms, IAF Air Warriors were part of the successful mission. IAF heartily congratulates #ISRO on achieving this milestone. IAF will contribute and collaborate in future as well, for many such undertakings. #AtmanirbharBharat #HarKaamDeshKeNaam," it posted and also shared some photographs and a video.

ISRO on Friday said it has achieved a major milestone in the area of reusable launch vehicle technology through the RLV LEX-02 landing experiment.

This is the second of the series conducted at Aeronautical Test Range, Chitradurga, in Karnataka at 7.10 am.

After the RLV-LEX-01 mission was accomplished last year, RLV-LEX-02 demonstrated the autonomous landing capability of reusable launch vehicle (RLV) from off-nominal initial conditions at release from helicopter, the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said in a statement.