- Air Marshal Tejpal Singh emphasised assessing current capabilities before adopting fifth-generation tech
- He highlighted building combat architecture with autonomy and resilient systems prior to new aircraft
- Operational coherence and not technological uniformity needed for fifth-generation integration, he said
Air Marshal Tejpal Singh today called for first finding out what we have, detecting what we urgently need and at the same time building the architecture for what is going to come - fifth-generation and beyond.
Deputy Chief of the Air Staff in his special address titled 'Fifth Generation and Beyond' at the NDTV Defence Summit 2026 said that before the transition to fifth generation and the next generation of battlespace, it is important to address immediate operational requirements.
"We cannot stop at the capability we have today while we wait for that ideal future to emerge 20 years from now. Our challenges are actually more demanding. Firstly, we have to find what we have, detect what we urgently need, and at the same time build the architecture for what is going to come next, keeping in mind the fact that in a battlespace, that is how we should shape how we think about fifth generation and beyond," he said.
He said it may not be possible to jump generation to generation of aircraft but can certainly attempt to jump generations of combat architecture.
"That is what we should aim for. We can begin by building autonomy, distributed sensing, resilient communications and open mission systems before the aircraft normally associated with 5th generation warfare actually arrive. This is important because the future Indian Air Force will inevitably be a 5th generation force," he said.
"The objective cannot be technological uniformity. It has to be operational coherence despite technological diversity. This also gives us a useful principle for reduction: urgency and transformation are not competing requirements. What we induct today should have a path into the combat structure that I spoke about that we are building for tomorrow.
"Like I said, not every platform has to be 5th generation. The force has to become future compatible and this includes human forces too, both in the industry and in the air force. Even air warriors were made not for just one system or one aircraft. He or she must understand technology, data, AI, space, cyber, electronic warfare, joint operations, and above all, systems thinking.
"That, to my mind, is the real meaning of the 5th generation and beyond for us," Air Marshal Tejpal Singh said.
He said the "relationship between us, that is, the operators and the users, and the industry has to change."
"We need operators, designers, software engineers, test establishments and manufacturers working much more closely throughout the entire life cycle of the system. Not every experiment needs to become a procurement programme. We should be able to try something, discover that it doesn't work, alter it and try again. Failure is part of the game and this is how an adaptive combat system is to be developed," he said.
According to the Air Marshal, a new weapon should not become a five- or seven-year integration programme, a software update should not wait for a nine-month upgrade and a new algorithm should be capable of moving from the laboratory to controlled operational experimentation quickly.
"A successful system should be capable of being manufactured and scaled," he said.
