Indian Wars: Fighter Controllers' Perspective

The role of Air Defence (AD) and Signal Units (SUs) in particular, during war has never been documented in specific detail by any of the historians. Some have mentioned it indirectly and some have covered it in passing remarks. It was, therefore, so heartening to see the Twitter account of IAF historian Anchit Gupta of April 7, 2022, wherein he gave a detailed account of war and the role performed by AD units from the perspective of fighter controllers. 1 A major portion of his article was based on the inputs provided by revered veteran Group Captain ML Bountra (Retd), who has the distinction of being one of the few fighter controllers who participated in all the wars of India, from 1962 onwards. Besides being a thorough professional, he is also a prolific writer and has shared his experiences, and analysis, of these wars at various platforms. He, therefore, is the primary contributor to most of the historical records mentioned here. The SUs are the very identity of fighter controllers, the way squadrons are for fighter pilots. Congratulating Anchit for such a wonderful job, when the author asked him how he got this idea of talking about SUs, which no one had done earlier, he replied that his father, a fighter pilot himself, had great regard for his FC friends whom he had worked with, and he would often remember them very fondly.