"Objective is not combat-role cooperation"

? Focus on "mutually supportive roles"

? Bilateral exercise in November

? Possibility of cooperation in "network centric operations."

INGAPORE: India and Singapore have held their first-ever air staff talks as part of the ongoing process of improving linkages under the bilateral Defence Cooperation Agreement.

An important aspect of the talks, held last week, was the focus on "mutually supportive roles," including "interoperability" between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and its Singapore counterpart for disaster management and humanitarian relief in South East Asia.

Vice-Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Ajit Bhavnani led the Indian delegation, while the Singapore team was headed by Brigadier General Charles Sih.

After the talks, Air Marshal Bhavnani told The Hindu that the two sides "are not looking at interoperability in a combat role [and] we do not consider that a present-day aim or objective." Nor was it required.

Explaining India's current defence posture towards friendly countries such as Singapore, Air Marshal Bhavnani said: "The IAF is growing in a strategic manner and is now looking at broadening its horizons and reaching out. Because we have got a lot of equipment and a lot of systems which enable us to reach out strategically... We even went to the west coast of the United States when Katrina broke out, for relief [there]."

The air forces of India and Singapore would hold a bilateral exercise, the third in a series, in November.

Training as an area of collaboration was not yet decided upon, though. He hinted at the possibility of cooperation with Singapore in the high-tech area of "network centric operations."

Proposals

India has now initiated exchanges with some other East Asian countries - Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, and China - to explore avenues of cooperation. New Delhi received proposals from "different countries" for joint air exercises following the "appreciation" that the IAF got from its U.S. counterpart.

Describing the IAF's current state of preparedness as "very, very good," Air Marshal Bhavnani said: "We have [also] started developing our systems ... to utilise the assets in space to be able to network ourselves totally."

India had "not [yet] achieved operationalisation" of this project that would be based on "real-time satellite imagery" as also facilities for voice and data communications. The possibility of tapping some external know-how was being looked at in this scenario.

He offered "no comments" on the question whether the IAF was geared for any deployments under India's nuclear security doctrine.

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