The Indian Air Force (IAF) operates in a congested and contested geopolitical arena. Herein a common understanding of the Centre of Gravity (CoG) can ensure military focus. Understanding of CoG may be approached with differing perspectives. This article would attempt to harmonise these perspectives. Post target identification, planners would be confounded with the dilemma of targeting while applying concentrated firepower. Should this concentration be limited to time and space or in purpose too? Possony studied the air campaigns of World War II and presented one such model for prosecution.
General Giulio Douhet wrote in 1921 that, ‘he who controls the air controls everything’. Almost a century later, the official doctrine of most major air power nations continue to propagate a similar theme. His contention that control of the air is vital for victory in war was widely accepted and remains so till today. Prominent air power theorists, writing across ages and across continents, agreed to the primacy given to winning and maintaining control of the air. Control of the air is assumed to be primus inter pares of all the air power roles.
Africa’s continental aspirations are well documented in ‘Agenda 2063’. With a laid-out implementation plan for well-articulated goals to meet the aspirations, Africa is moving in the right direction, albeit a little slowly. The main reasons are intertwined and interrelated—conflicts and slow economic growth. To top this, African governments are splurging on building military capabilities without clearly defined strategic goals.
In August 2021, the world was stunned by dramatic visuals of Afghan civilians running along and attempting to cling to a US Air Force (USAF) C-17 aircraft taking off from the Kabul airport in a desperate bid to flee from Afghanistan that had fallen to the Taliban. Just a month before this, in the first week of July 2021, the last of the American troops left Bagram Airfield, which had been the nerve centre of American-led military operations in Afghanistan for nearly 20 years.
