How India’s air defence shield works

At the media briefing on Operation Sindoor on Monday, military officers displayed a picture of the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) node of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

The picture showed more than two dozen IAF personnel gathered before a large screen that displayed a consolidated real-time feed produced by India’s air defence assets that were deployed towards creating an impenetrable shield against incoming aerial threats from Pakistan during the military conflict of the past week.

Capable air defence systems that protect against enemy air strikes are vital to a nation’s defensive infrastructure. Air defence systems use a complex system of radar, control centres, defensive fighter jets, and ground-based air defence missile, artillery, and electronic warfare systems to neutralise a range of threats from the sky, including enemy aircraft, drones, and missiles.
Developed by the public sector aerospace and defence electronics company Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), IACCS is an automated command and control system that integrates data from all air defence assets, including ground-based radar, airborne sensors, civilian radar, communication nodes, and the various command and control centres of the IAF.
The availability of the consolidated dataset, along with real-time updates, provides military commanders at multiple levels with a comprehensive picture and overall situational awareness during air operations, so that they can respond to a wide range of aerial threats.

The total battlefield picture enables central control and decentralised execution at various levels. By reducing reaction time, it allows military commanders to make early decisions on identification and assessment of threats, and to direct air defence assets to carry out kills.

The overlapping radar and radio data coverage of the IACCS helps in effective airspace management and reduces redundancy.