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The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), New Delhi organized an interaction with visiting UK delegation on “The Future of Air Warfare: A UK Industry and Government Perspective” on 16 February 2023. The UK delegation was led by British High Commissioner to India Mr. Alex Ellis who was accompanied by the Rolls Royce senior executives and technical specialists; UK Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office officials; Industrial, technology and defence advisors. The officials from the Indian Army, Airforce and Navy in addition to senior expert groups from the VIF participated in the deliberation. Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director, VIF, chaired the interaction and made the opening and concluding remarks.

The interaction covered a wide range of issues relating to the air warfare and defence technologies, including the ongoing war in Ukraine; future of air warfare such as use of drones, counter-drones, and air powers; use of critical and emerging technologies in modernization of fighter aircrafts, surveillance and air defence systems; and, the impact of Ukraine war on global food and energy supply chain. The changing nature of war because of the geopolitical competition and rivalry, continuous economic power shift, and fast evolving technologies and its impact on the future of air warfare and opportunities for working together with trusted allies and partners for joint research, development and production of advanced defence technologies attracted considerable attention during the interaction. The emergence of Indo-Pacific as the centre of global power; rise of China and India; China’s increasing space power; the geopolitical competition and rivalry between the great powers in the Indo-Pacific region and their implications on regional peace and stability were also discussed.

It was underlined that India is emerging in a stiff competitive world and its rise will not take place in a benign environment. It highlighted India’s role in this rapidly changing geopolitical landscape of the 21st century, its G20 presidency and the importance of Global South. It was noted that the world is increasingly becoming multipolar where India needs friends and trusted strategic partnerships to cope with this competitive world. But trust has many dimensions, not just building trusted partnership in defence technologies, but also in health to counter future global health crisis like COVID-19.

Moreover, critical minerals; the use of critical and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, autonomous systems, and data science in modernisation of defence technologies; domestic and international challenges including industrial capacity, logistics, and supply chain security; use of new platforms such as drones and counter-drones; and maintaining balance between air defence and ground attacks in future air warfare came up during the discussions. The two sides also deliberated upon the rising cost of F-35 and F-22; stealth, supersonics and space powers; gas turbine technology; nuclear propulsion; India’s defence market; tech talents; and, scope for transfer of technology (ToT) as well as opportunities for joint development and production of future defence technologies.