Debates over who “owns” the skies above the battlefield have resurfaced within India’s strategic community. Recent commentary on the control of the Air Littoral — the contested layer between land and higher airspace — has reignited old service rivalries under the guise of doctrinal prudence. What these arguments reveal, however, is not a defence of jointness but an unease with its implications: a reluctance to accept that modern warfare no longer fits neatly within single-service silos.

As militaries worldwide confront the convergence of air, land, cyber, and space domains, India’s doctrinal discourse risks being trapped in 20th-century paradigms. The challenge before us is not who commands the air, but how command is shared — dynamically, responsively, and technologically. True jointness

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