New Delhi: Future Indian Air Force fighter aircraft could potentially engage targets without switching on their own onboard radars, as warfare increasingly moves towards interconnected networks of space, airborne, ground and passive sensors.
The concept was highlighted by Deputy Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Tejpal Singh at the NDTV Defence Summit 2026. He described a shift away from the traditional model in which individual fighters independently detect, track and engage targets.
Under a network-centric approach, information from multiple platforms could be combined to create a common operational picture. Airborne early-warning aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, ground-based radar systems, passive electronic sensors and satellites could contribute data to the network.
A fighter equipped with long-range weapons could then receive target information from these external sources while keeping its radar inactive. This could reduce the aircraft’s electronic signature and potentially make detection by hostile warning systems more difficult.
The effectiveness of such an architecture would depend heavily on secure communications, accurate data fusion and software capable of rapidly correlating information from different sensors.
Systems such as the Air Force Network and indigenous tactical data links are expected to play an important role in enabling real-time information sharing.
The concept also reflects the growing importance of the OODA cycle—observe, orient, decide and act—in modern air warfare. Faster and more reliable information flow could allow combat platforms to respond more rapidly to changing battlefield conditions.
As India develops the AMCA, upgrades the Tejas fleet and expands manned-unmanned teaming, the broader objective is to integrate aircraft, drones, ground systems and space-based assets into a coordinated operational network rather than treating them as isolated platforms.
