Articles By Air Marshal Anil Chopra
UAVs: A Potent Operational Asset
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 36.1, Jan-Mar 2021 | Date: 31 Mar , 2021
Despite tacit understanding between China and India, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) continue to play a significant role in the face-off between them in Ladakh. Meanwhile, Pakistan continues to...
Does India need a Strategic Bomber?
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 36.1, Jan-Mar 2021 | Date: 10 Mar , 2021
A South China Morning Post, report of November 26, 2020, says, China’s H-20 stealth bomber will give China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) a ‘truly intercontinental’ strike...
Contours of a Sixth-Generation Fighter Aircraft
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 35.4 Oct-Dec 2020 | Date: 09 Feb , 2021
The air combat that took place during Pakistan Air Force (PAF) riposte on March 27, 2019, as a response to the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Balakot strikes, rekindled interest in fighter aircraft...
Turnaround of the IAF Fighter Fleet
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 35.4 Oct-Dec 2020 | Date: 03 Feb , 2021
The Galwan showdown of June 2020, and the continuing stand-off between the world’s two powerful nations India and China has once again initiated public debate in India and brought the focus back...
Evolving Trends in Aerial Combat
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. Apr-Jun 2020, (35.2) & Jul-Sep 2020, (35.3) | Date: 14 Jan , 2021
The air combat engagement between the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) during the PAF riposte after Balakot air strike in February 2019 is being discussed among air forces...
The IAF in a Two-Front War
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. Apr-Jun 2020, (35.2) & Jul-Sep 2020, (35.3) | Date: 07 Jan , 2021
In April 2018, the Indian Air Force (IAF) practiced two-front war scenarios in its mega exercise ‘Ex Gagan Shakti’. “A two-front war is a real scenario; we are not a war-mongering nation but...
Emerging Technologies for Sixth-Generation Combat Aircraft
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 34.3 Jul-Sep 2019 | Date: 12 Dec , 2020
The air strike against Balakot by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the air combat that followed in response to the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) riposte on February 27, 2019, rekindled interest in...
Artificial Intelligence in Military Aviation
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 35.1 Jan-Mar 2020 | Date: 19 Nov , 2020
Much like the nuclear arms race of the 20th century, Artificial Intelligence (AI) arms race poses the new challenge in 21st century. Autonomous operations by aerial drones, robots and naval...
Air Defence of India: Evolving Options
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 34.3 Jul-Sep 2019 | Date: 23 Oct , 2020
Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) attempted a large force ‘reposte’ on February 27, 2019, in response to Indian Air Force’s (IAF) deep air strikes on targets in Balakot. The PAF launched a...
Militarisation of Space: Imperatives for India
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 34.4 Oct-Dec 2019 | Date: 15 Oct , 2020
In the last week of July 2019, India concluded the first table-top joint war game called ‘IndSpaceEx’. Run by the military and the space scientists, it was the next logical step after India...
Air Elements in Special Ops
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 34.2 Apr-Jun 2019 | Date: 06 Jun , 2020
Twelve multi-role all-weather Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) supported by SU-30MKI air-superiority fighters and combat enablers like the Airborne Warning and Control...
Indo-US Defence “Make in India” Aviation Initiative
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 35.1 Jan-Mar 2020 | Date: 24 Feb , 2020
The discussions on the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2005 actually started the India-US strategic cooperation and possibly of India leaning towards the USA. Because of years of military purchases from...
AMCA and LCA MK II: Challenges and Options
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 34.4 Oct-Dec 2019 | Date: 06 Feb , 2020
The Balakot air strike in February 2019 and the air combat thereafter in which a MiG-21 Bison of Indian Air Force (IAF) had to engage a much more modern F-16 of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), once...
Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft for the IAF
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 34.2 Apr-Jun 2019 | Date: 26 Jan , 2020
The Indian Air Force (IAF) air strike across the international border to target a Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) camp 60 kilometres deep in Balakot, well beyond Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the air...
Modernisation of the Indian Air Force
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 34.1 Jan-Mar 2019 | Date: 07 Oct , 2019
The IAF has slowly been losing the clear combat edge that it enjoyed over Pakistan in 1971 especially in terms of numbers. Technology intensive air power requires faster replacement of assets due...
Autonomous Aerial Weapons & Platforms
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 33.4 Oct-Dec 2018 | Date: 14 Sep , 2019
The modern military drone was the brainchild of John Stuart Foster Jr., a nuclear physicist and aero modeling hobbyist, who in 1971, had the idea that these models could be applied to building...
Future Aerial Weapons
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 33.3 Jul-Sep 2018 | Date: 22 Aug , 2019
The inventory of aerial weapons such as missiles and Precision Guided Munitions is far from sufficient for even a 20-day war. The Indian Armed Forces had sought six months time from Prime Minister...
Unmanned Fighters and Beyond
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 33.2 Apr-Jun 2018 | Date: 31 May , 2019
The fighter-bomber will continue to remain the main instrument for prosecuting air war. Their main characteristics would be agility, super cruise, stealth, multi-function Active Electronically...
Indo-US Military Ties in the Regime of Air Power
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 34.1 Jan-Mar 2019 | Date: 25 Mar , 2019
While the US needs India to contain China, India also wants to manage an increasingly assertive China. Rising China and common security concerns have brought the US, Japan, Australia, the ASEAN...
Future of Air Dominance
By: Air Marshal Anil Chopra | Issue: Vol. 33.3 Jul-Sep 2018 | Date: 21 Feb , 2019
The USAF and the US Navy are leading the evolution of next-generation platforms and technologies. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, USAF Research Labs, Boeing ‘Phantom Works’,...