NEW DELHI: With the Indian Air Force down to just 29 fighter squadrons against the 42.5 sanctioned to tackle a two-front threat from China and Pakistan, new chief Air Chief Marshal Ashutosh Dixit on Sunday declared that clawing back combat strength towards the authorised level would be his top task.
Laying out a four-point ‘VAYU’ vision after receiving the ceremonial guard of honour, ACM Dixit, said every squadron, radar and air defence unit and every air warrior, had to be ready to react at very short notice. That is the V, for ‘vigilance and readiness’. Earlier, he laid a wreath at the National War Memorial.
The A stands for ‘aatmanirbharta.’. The new chief placed the Tejas Mk-1A and Mk-II, the fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and home-grown sensors and weapons at the very top of the IAF's wish-list. The force would fight with Indian solutions and hold them in numbers large enough to sustain operations, he said. The IAF's job was to fight and win, but above all to "deter conflict through credible air power".
Y is for 'yukti' (ingenuity) or fresh thinking in doctrine, procedures and technology. That ranges from networked, AI-enabled command and control and layered counter-drone shields to force protection, resilience and the use of near-space as an operational domain. U is for 'unity of effort,' with the IAF planning and fighting as one with the Army, Navy and national agencies under the JAI (jointness, aatmanirbharta, innovation) mantra.
ACM Dixit credited ACM Singh (Retd) for showing what precise and decisive air power could achieve during Operation Sindoor and thanked him for handing over a force in a high state of readiness. But he warned that the security environment remained demanding, with drones, long-range precision weapons, space, cyber, AI and the electromagnetic spectrum reshaping the very character of war.
The thrust on desi jets, however, comes at a time when not a single one of the 180 Tejas Mk-1A fighters ordered from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) had been handed over as of last month. HAL has built 27 airframes, but radar and weapons integration is yet to be certified.
That comes on top of long delays in supplies of the American GE-F404 engines. ACM Singh had himself warned last month that the delays would hurt. He said the IAF must induct around two squadrons (36-40 jets) every year just to arrest the slide.
With the MiG-29s and Jaguars also headed for retirement towards 2030, the IAF is banking on the 114-jet multi-role fighter aircraft (MRFA) project as well. France's Dassault Aviation submitted a formal proposal in August for Rafale F4 jets under the roughly Rs 3.25 lakh crore deal, with around 96 of them to be built in India. ACM Singh (Retd) had said the contract could be inked by the end of this fiscal.
ACM Dixit also said the training, morale, safety, welfare and dignity of air warriors, Agniveervayu, civilians, veterans, veer naris and their families would have his personal attention.
