Integrated Maritime and Air Power for Regional Security Architecture in the Indo-Pacific: Challenges, Opportunities, and Future Force Integration Strategies

Indo-pacific is a region of the world that is considered to be the most significant maritime space that has over 5.3 trillion annually of trade flows, as well as significant sea lines of communication (SLOCs) among the leading economies in the world. This research paper examines the maritime and air power capabilities in the new Indo-Pacific security structure. In the course of profound analysis of geo-political processes, technological advances, and cooperation models, this paper finds several important issues like disputed maritime sovereignty, asymmetrical projection of power, and institutional mis-coordination. The study identifies significant prospects to enhanced regional security, such as through integrated operations, cooperation frameworks comprising of more than two countries such as the Quad and AUKUS and capacity building. We recommend future force integration strategies that aim at interoperability, intelligence revealing, awareness of the maritime domain, and implementation of the rules-based order. This article contributes to the academic literature on the topic of Indo-Pacific security architecture and also provides policy recommendations to the stakeholders of the region.