Air Marshal BK Pandey
Planning for the future has always been a daunting task, especially when it concerns the military of a nation. As the military is a vital component and, in fact, the ultimate instrument of national security, improper assessment or gross miscalculation of its pattern of development can have catastrophic ramifications. The task of forward planning is rendered particularly difficult in a scenario where long-term plans need to be evolved in a coordinated fashion amongst the three wings of the Armed Forces — the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. Also, for any long-term planning to be meaningful, two inputs are prerequisites for military planners — a clear long-term strategic vision for the nation, and assured availability of resources commensurate with national security imperatives, in that order.
However, in the Indian context, the lofty and fiery rhetoric on both these aspects emanating from the highest levels of governance have rarely crystallised into reality. Over the last six decades since Independence, there has been piecemeal acquisition of hardware in the Indian Air Force (IAF) as cleared by the civilian bureaucracy to be sanctioned by the political leadership on the basis of stand-alone case-by-case justification and not in conformity with any long-term national plan. 
Possibly there has been none. The process of acquisition of new equipment has generally followed a pattern of one-to-one replacement with equipment procured from a source that is either the cheapest, politically expedient or both. Acquisition of hardware has often been contingent not on the availability of resources but on allocation of funds.
Image: IAF`s old P-19 Russian radars which are on the verge of being phased out. Image copyright bharat-rakshshak.com. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.
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