Go or No-Go? "Authorised" pills helping Indian Air Force pilots gain the edge

The Indian Air Force has added some new weapons to its armoury, but unlike the usual hypersonic cruise missiles or the bunker-bursting 'smart' bombs, this time, the new weapons are in the form of harmless looking tablets called 'Go/No-Go' pills.

Worry not, these pills are "authorised", and IAF personnel are using them to boost alertness levels and cognitive powers, along with fighting fatigue and sleep deprivation during round-the-clock combat exercises.

The 'Go' pill is Modafinil, which is famous in military aviation circles around the world for increasing alertness and managing fatigue.
The 'No-Go' pill, on the other hand, is Zolpidem, which is a sedative used to treat insomnia.

These pills have been in use for the last three to four years, earlier expansively used in the high-voltage 'Livewire' exercise, which was conducted by IAF from October 31 to November 8, and saw the activation of all its 54 airbases based in India.

Livewire was designed to test both offensive and defensive capabilities of the personnel, for a two-front war contingency in which swing forces were rapidly moved from the western theatre to the eastern one, and vice-versa.

The users of these pills range from pilots of fighter planes and helicopters to air traffic controllers, and the pills are allowed to be used only after extensive clinical trials, a senior IAF officer told ET.

"The field trials and studies were conducted by our doctors to validate pharmacological strategies for sleep and alertness management for aircrews in extended operations."

It was established both Modafinil and Zolpidem would help to optimise our personnel's performance in a sustained operational scenario," he said.

Once the Go pill is taken, and the adrenaline rush of a combat sortie has happened, a fighter pilot would need to sleep well sp that he remains sharp and focused for the next mission, which is why the No-Go pill is used.

A pilot who is sleep deprived will not only suffer from lower performance levels but would also have poor judgment and reaction time, proving to be deadly.

The next obvious question is, of course, if the use of these pills leads to addiction or leaves undesired impacts on one’s health. The answer however is no, because one, the pills are not taken everyday and are allowed only for specific missions and that too under strict supervision. The pills were not known to have any noticeable side-effects on trials.

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