The successful air raid on a Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp at Balakot on Pakistan soil without any collateral damage illustrate the crucial role that air-power can play in sub-conventional warfare going against conventional wisdom, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria said here on Friday.
Since air power is traditionally considered a tool that is exploited to escalate a conflict, its use is a taboo in small-scale skirmishes. Even during the Kargil episode, the Indian Air Force hit the targets on Pakistan soil but didn't cross the 740 km Line of Control fearing escalation.
“Balakot shows there exists a space below the conventional boundary where air power can be used for targeting an enemy and still the situation can be deescalated through political and diplomatic means,” he said here at a seminar one year after the air raid.
Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria said IAF was on a moral high ground as there was no collateral damage. “The IAF could have struck Balakot with twice the number of warplanes and launched four times the weapons but didn't do that to ensure there was no collateral damage. The weapons chosen were just adequate,” he observed.
The IAF chief who earlier this week took off in a MiG-21 Type 69 combat jet from Srinagar air base along with other pilots of the 51 Squadron that took part in the air strike, felt Pakistan was in hurry to de escalate as Pakistan Air Force's Operation Swift Retort was targeted more towards its domestic audience.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the surgical strike of 2016 and Balakot air raid of 2019 were not just military strikes but a strong message to the adversary that terror infrastructure across the border couldn't be used as a safe haven to wage low-cost war against India.
“Our approach to terrorism was and will remain a judicious combination of clinical military action and mature and responsible diplomatic outreach,” Singh said at the seminar organised by the Centre for Air Power Studies on the first anniversary of the Balakot assault.
On the importance of maintaining an edge over Pakistan, the IAF Chief said, “We had an edge over the PAF in terms of Beyond Visual Range Missile capability at the time of Kargil. We allowed that to slip and thereafter it took a decade and a half in our struggle to acquire better capabilities.”