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Saturday, December 20, 2025
TopicIAF

Topic: IAF

Afghan plea for IAF support shows desperate Kabul. But this isn’t India’s war to fight

ThePrint view on the most important issues, instantly.

Gulf War to Vietnam to Balakot—role of air force offers lessons for theatre command planners

It is a dichotomy that the Army, while realising the utility of en mass firepower of an artillery division, does not apply the same rationale to air power.

To deal with China on LAC, India must downsize and restructure the armed forces

Converting the LAC into LoC will only drain India’s resources and stymie modernisation.

Three more Rafale fighter jets arrive in India from France

With the arrival of the seventh batch, the number of Rafale jets went up to 24. They will be a part of IAF's second squadron and will be based in Hasimara airbase in West Bengal.

Why setting up integrated theatre commands should not be rushed — former service chiefs explain

Former Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd), former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Fali H. Major (Retd) and former defence secretary NN Vohra were among the experts debating the theaterisation process.

Army commando who rescued Himachal tourists from dangling cable car now teaches Math in Australia

In a demonstration of integration possibilities between Army & IAF, a Para commando, his colleagues & IAF pilots rescued 10 stranded cable car passengers in Himachal in 1992.

There’s more to IAF than just being ‘supporting arm’, CDS & Chiefs must make a fresh start

The Air Force, in theatre command set-up, must have an overriding lien over the resources that may be allocated to other theatres on as required basis.

Design & materials of Jammu drone attack IEDs ‘point to Pakistan Ordnance factories’

Preliminary report on IEDs dropped by drones has confirmed that RDX was used, and that both devices were packed with about 1.5-2 kg of explosives.

IAF plans to buy 10 anti-drone systems from Indian vendors after Jammu air base attack

The systems are intended to ‘detect, track, identify, designate and neutralize’ hostile drones, and a Laser-DEW is essentially required as a ‘kill option’.

IAF has speed & flexibility but few assets. Theatre commands could limit it

A selection of the best news reports, analysis and opinions published by ThePrint this week.

On Camera

Henry George’s Single Tax offers a democratic alternative to communist remedies: DM Kulkarni

The immediate benefit of Single Tax would be to reduce the sale prices of land to nominal ones. Landowners would no longer find it profitable to keep idle lands, wrote DM Kulkarni in 1960.

China is taking India to WTO over subsidies, again. Here’s what it’s arguing before trade body

Dispute will now move to consultative process, which allows the two sides to come to an amicable agreement within 60 days.

Israel has ‘realised who its real friend is’, eyes defence expansion in India amid arms curbs by others

It is argued that India-Israel ties are moving from buyer–seller dynamic to one focused on joint development & manufacturing partnership, a shift 'more durable' than traditional arms sales.

Dhurandhar shows hard cinema is soft power and Pakistan is unapologetically the target

If Pathaan gave both conservatives and liberals room to hide, Dhurandhar extends no such courtesy. Aditya Dhar ripped open that tent of hypocrisy and turned the knife.