ABSTRACT
India’s security landscape is challenged by the unresolved border disputes with China and over Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) with Pakistan, despite the accession of the state to India soon after independence, wherein a large portion of the state is still occupied by Pakistan. This chapter deals with air power of India in that context without specific comparisons with the likely adversaries. At the same time, China continues to support Pakistan, politically, militarily, and economically, to keep India boxed-in in South Asia without being seen as confronting India directly. While the security challenges emerging from the existing geopolitical situation in the North, North-East, and the West continue to trouble India, India is in a unique geographical position in the Indian Ocean Region with a vast coastline and its southern peninsula jutting out into the Indian Ocean with the Arabian Sea to the West and the Bay of Bengal to the East.
