India is planning to establish Joint Command Analysis Centres (JCACs) near airports in major cities across India and weaponise them with surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) that will be able to bring down rogue aircraft.
The move is being seen as a necessary measure to foil 9/11-type attacks from the skies. Currently, only Delhi has a JCAC (near New Delhi’s IGI airport) but it is not weaponised with SAMs. The government is considering a proposal to establish JCACs at more cities and weaponise these centres, well-placed government sources said.
A high-level committee of secretaries (CoS) will meet on September 7 on the issue of “establishment and weaponisation” of JCACs and will discuss a proposal from the ministry of defence (MoD) in this regard, government sources said. The JCAC at Delhi is headed by an Indian Air Force officer and is an establishment comprising both IAF and civilian functionaries.
Sources said that currently, in case a threat is detected from any civilian aircraft over Delhi, the JCAC meets and decides issues such as authorisation to scramble IAF aircraft to neutralise the threat, if any. But the weaponisation of JCACs with SAMs will add a whole new dimension. It will mean that once a civilian aircraft is identified as a rogue aircraft posing a terror threat, it can be knocked out of the sky with SAMs.
In any case, the anti-hijacking policy of the government — formulated in 2005 — permits shooting down of a civilian aircraft if the aircraft is being used as a “missile” in a 9/11-type attack.
New Delhi has some prohibited airspace (no-fly zone) over it on account of the presence of important national and government buildings like Parliament, Rashtrapati Bhavan and North and South Blocks.
But, as was seen during the Mumbai terror attacks, even high-profile private buildings can be attacked by terrorists to cause maximum damage. Following the Mumbai terror attacks, intelligence agencies had received inputs that terror groups may now attempt to strike at high-profile targets using small aircraft or attempt to hijack aircraft and use them as missiles in an operation similar to the 9/11 attacks in the US.
Sources said the objective is to integrate airspace so that the JCACs can identify all aircraft flying in Indian airspace at any given time. The proposed induction of the satellite-based navigation system “Gagan” will help immensely, sources added. Government sources, however, said extreme caution has to be exercised during any attempt to ascertain whether a civilian aircraft is indeed a rogue aircraft on a terror attack to ensure that a civilian aircraft is not shot down by mistake.