NEW DELHI: Indian Air Force Chief, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, on Friday talked about the “badly off” numbers of fighters in the force, underlining that while it will take time to fill the existing gap, he would favour indigenously produced jets as replacements.
“Even if a domestic system delivers 85 percent or 90 percent of the performance offered by international products, we will choose to go with the homegrown option,” he said at a seminar organised by Chanakya Forum.
However, tardy delivery will not help, and he quoted Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s assurance that it would deliver 24 fighters starting next year. He was referring to the delayed delivery of the Tejas MK-IA fighters, which was set to begin last February but is yet to begin.
“We did an exercise in-house. We need to produce or induct aircraft at the rate of two squadrons per year. We have many fleets needing phase-out in another 5-10 years. So they need to be replaced. Plus, we already have vacancies. We are looking at inducting 35-40 aircraft a year to be produced somewhere. I understand those capacities cannot come overnight, but we need to start pushing ourselves towards that,” ACM Singh said.
The phasing out the Air Chief referred to are the Mirage 2000, Jaguar, and MiG-29 fleets. It will begin in 2030.
The IAF operates around 30 fighter squadrons, each with 16-18 combat jets, whereas the sanctioned strength is 42 squadrons.
Referring to the private sector, he said, “…if we have a private player coming in, we have a very good model of transport aircraft at this moment…we add another 12-18 from that side…We must ensure we don’t lose steam while pushing it.”