Pathankot attack: Shouldn't a younger force guard airfields?

CHANDIGARH: Should we be exposing retired armed forces personnel, who make up the Defence Security Corps (DSC), to attacks by terrorists? A debate has started among some former defence personnel on the issue after six DSC men were killed in the terrorist attack on the Pathankot air force station.

To be fair to the DSC men, they were caught unawares at the Pathankot station's cook house and were not armed. Yet, one of the men, grappled with a terrorist and killed him only to be shot by another terrorist.

However, many feel that these men have already given their best years to guarding the borders. While it is a good idea to give them a fresh posting post retirement given that they have fought for the country, guard duty at forward bases like Pathankot should be given to younger men. All the DSC personnel who died or suffered injuries were in their 50s.

There is now a demand to raise a separate force comprising newly inducted youths to guard air bases with high-value assets.
Among those who started the debate was Lt Gen H S Panag (retd), former army commander of Northern and Central Commands. He tweeted to Manohar Parrikar, "More than that security at the Air Bases is pathetic. Allow IAF to raise Air Base Security Units!" He added, "Base perimeter 2025km! DSC nothing more than trip (sacrificial) wire. Garuds-poorly trained!"

The tweets were widely circulated.

Though Garud commandos of the Air Force are trained on the lines of the NSG, they are small in number and trained to act as quick reaction teams (QRT) of the airbase. The peripheral security of the airfield is done by DSC men. The Air Force also has many technical persons who either fly an aircraft or maintain it and are not trained to guard airfields from such attacks. Panag told TOI, "I suggest government must raise special airfield defence units and train them on the lines of army to secure vulnerable installations."

Former Air officer commanding in chief, South-Western Command, Air Marshal Randhir Singh said that around four decades back, there was a demand from the Air Force to set up an Air Force Regiment, a dedicated force but the Centre did not want to spend funds.