Officials and top defence officers during the unveiling of a bust of the late CDS Bipin Rawat in New Delhi on Saturday.

Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari said on Saturday that new forms of threats have emerged and there was a need for making preparations for prolonged wars instead of short and swift operations.

“We used to make preparations for short and swift wars. Now we have to prepare for the possibility of prolonged wars. We have to increase logistics footprints, technology and tactics,” he said at an event.

On the wide spectrum of threats, he said, “There are drones that travel at very slow speed, and then there are hypersonic weapons. Now, threats posed by information war are more pronounced.”

On the fighter jet fleet, the IAF Chief said, “Our strength is going down due to phasing out of older jets…After MiG 21s are phased out, the same will happen with Jaguar and Mirage.” He said the focus was on the production of the Light Combat Aircraft MK-1A version, followed by the TEJAS MK-2 version and the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft. “The immediate gap is being filled by the Multirole Fighter Aircraft, 114 of which will be made in India with a foreign partner,” he said. — TNS

Navy Chief For Common Ranks

Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar on Saturday reiterated the need to get rid of colonial practices in the armed forces and specifically cited the names of some ranks in the Navy. He questioned the designations such as “petty officer” and “chief petty officer”. “Why should it be named ‘petty’?” he questioned. The Admiral suggested that some ranks and designations could be same in the three services.