AIR Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari on Wednesday said that there is need to upgrade and fine-tune the education and training pattern of military officers in the face of challenging security dynamics.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) chief was in Gandhinagar to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the IAF and the Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU).

“While conventional domains of conflict have been evolving consistently, new non-kinetic and non-lethal means of warfare are also being used,” the Air Chief Marshal said after IAF signed MoU on academics and research. Knowledge is becoming a central resource in the information age, and strategy and geopolitics are being increasingly affected by information, he said.

“There has been a paradigm shift in the nature of security threats, and newer ways of pursuing strategic objectives are coming to life. These are also creating newer and unknown vulnerabilities. These challenging security dynamics will continue to pose tough choices and would require novel and innovative solutions,” the IAF chief said. He said, technology, training and education are vital dimensions of preparing a military officer for future war.

“In such a scenario, there is an evolving need to upgrade and fine-tune our education and training pattern,” the IAF chief said. “We need to make a roadmap for strengthening training programmes and research, stimulating innovation and supporting incubation of emerging technologies, which calls for bringing military, academia and industry --the three critical pillars of national security - on the common platform,” the Air Chief Marshal said.

Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari termed the MoU signing with RRU a “historic partnership”. The IAF and the University will work together to address the issues of academic excellence and research-oriented fields.

The MoU will enable the pursuit of academics by the IAF personnel in various contemporary subjects besides promoting R&D, stated an official release.