NEW DELHI: Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa affirmed on Tuesday the warfighting capacity of the Indian Air Force (IAF), saying that it can take on the enemy at every spectrum of the warfare.
Dhanoa said, “The IAF is prepared to fight across the entire spectrum of warfare, be it an all-out war, a skirmish like Kargil conflict or retaliation to a terrorist attack."
He was speaking at a seminar in Delhi, organised by the Centre for Air Power Studies, to commemorate IAF's Operation Safed Sagar during the 1999 Kargil conflict.
“During the Kargil conflict, precision bombing capabilities which existed only on Mirage-2000 are now also available on Su-30, Jaguar, MiG-29 and MiG-27 Upg aircraft," he said.
"IAF has also added to its arsenal to take on the enemy at Beyond Visual Range," He further added.
“Presently, BVR Missiles are carried by MiG-29, Su-30 and Mirage-2000 aircraft. IAF has the AWACS aircraft to monitor the airspace deep inside the enemy territory and operates on secure communication with network-centric warfare capabilities," Dhanoa remarked.
The Chief of Air Staff was the Commanding Officer of 17 Sqn during the Kargil Conflict and was operating from Srinagar.
It was for the first time then under him that the MiG-21 fighter jets carried out air to the ground bombing at night in the mountains.
He also talked about the operational limitations that existed during Kargil operations and the innovative ways adopted by the IAF to overcome them.
“The developments which took place post Kargil war have transformed the Indian Air Force in capability so as to counter any kind of air threat in conventional and sub-conventional domains of warfare." added the Air Chief.