Articles By Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary
IAF defeated PAF in 1965 War
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Vol 22.1 Jan - Mar 2007 | Date: 29 Jun , 2023
After few sorties by the IAF against East Pakistan on 7 Sept a political embargo was imposed on further attacks in the East. This remained in force despite continued PAF strikes in East on 7...
1965 War: IAF supports Indian Army better than PAF
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Vol 22.2 Apr-Jun 2007 | Date: 04 Aug , 2020
Air support to surface forces, both in offence and defence is one of the most important tasks of any air force. Post 1962 debacle, the Government got down to building up the Army and the Air...
1971 Air War: Battle for Air Supremacy
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Book Excerpt: Indian Air Force in Wars | Date: 15 Nov , 2017
The IAF had initially deployed 10 squadrons in the East; four squadrons for air defence and six squadrons in strike role capacity. This against one squadron of F-86 of the PAF, although some...
Birth of the Indian Air Force (IAF)
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Book Excerpt: Indian Air Force in Wars | Date: 08 Oct , 2017
“Preparation for war is an expansive, burdensome business, yet there is one important part of it that costs little – STUDY.” — Field Marshal Slim The IAF was...
1971 War: Military Aims and Objectives
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Book Excerpt: Indian Air Force in Wars | Date: 29 Oct , 2016
“1965 and 1971 Wars were a lesson in how wars should not be fought… the sooner people disabused themselves of the impression that the 1965 War ended in a victory for Pakistan the...
Yom Kippur War: 1973
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Book Excerpt: Attrition in Air Warfare | Date: 14 Aug , 2016
Chronologically the next war for our study is the Yom Kippur War. If 1967 was a classical study of pre-emptive offensive, then this war of 1973 can be considered how an Air Force ought to react to...
No Use of Combat Air Power in 1962
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Vol 21.3 Jul-Sep 2006 | Date: 02 May , 2016
In 1962 as the war clouds gathered over the Himalayan mountains, Indian Army beefed up its defences. As a result IAF was asked to undertake tremendous surge in air maintenance – nearly thrice...
Evolution of Air Power Thought in India
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Book Excerpt: Indian Air Force in Wars | Date: 20 Feb , 2016
Strength reinforced by stratagem will surely do much. What, indeed, cannot be accomplished by a combination of my physical strength, Krishna’s wisdom and Arjun’s dexterity? — Bhima in...
IAF: The Strategic Force of Choice
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Vol 22.3 Jul-Sep 2007 | Date: 02 Oct , 2015
IAF is a Strategic force today and has been so, for many decades. It started as a small force – a Flight of four aircraft on 1 Apr 1933, in a tactical role of supporting the Army. The role of...
Time Critical Targeting: UAVs
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Vol. 28.2 Apr-Jun 2013 | Date: 30 Aug , 2013
The obvious advantage of stand-alone UAVs for TCT is the shortened sensor-to-shooter timeline since no dissemination of information is required from sensor to shooter. In optimum conditions, it is...
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in China
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Vol. 28.1 Jan-Mar 2013 | Date: 28 Mar , 2013
China’s massive UAV developmental work has unhealthy implications for India. Soon Chinese capability will be of the latest standard and massive in size. If and when integrated in a manner...
Limitations of Technical Intelligence
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Vol 25.4 Oct-Dec 2010 | Date: 10 Jan , 2013
Intelligence gathering is as old as human civilization. Good Intelligence generally leads to success, whereas failure to gather timely Intelligence has invariably resulted in defeat and ruin....
Cyber Warfare: The New Threat
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Vol. 26.4 Oct-Dec 2011 | Date: 14 Dec , 2012
The cyber warriors will identify own networks weakness which will be followed up by regular patch up of vulnerabilities. In addition their actual target could include blowing up electric...
Helicopter Operations in Sri Lanka
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Vol 27.3 Jul-Sep 2012 | Date: 31 Oct , 2012
The Mi-8 and the AN-32 were the main ‘workhorses’ in Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka. The Mi-8 fleet flew well over 35,000 sorties lifting over 100,000 troops and 5,700 tonnes of load. Similarly,...
Army Aviation: A dream to realise
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Vol. 27.2 Apr-Jun 2012 | Date: 13 Oct , 2012
Helicopters have tremendous usage, both in times of peace as well as war. Also, they can be used across a wide spectrum of conflict from low-scale counter-insurgency operations to full-fledged...
Jointmanship in the Military - II
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Vol 26.2 Apr-Jun 2011 | Date: 05 Jul , 2011
The Air War : Simply stated the air war is about destroying/defuntionalising selected targets. As has been summed up so succinctly – “Air power is targeting and targeting is Intelligence”....
Jointmanship in the Military
By: Air Vice Marshal AK Tiwary | Issue: Vol 26.2 Apr-Jun 2011 | Date: 04 Jul , 2011
Victory in any event, be it a playful game or a bloodthirsty war, is a joint effort of all the members. How one orchestrates this effort is Integration. These fundamentals are universal. These do...