The Chief of Air Staff also said that China is rapidly building infrastructure along the LAC, especially in the Ladakh sector, and India is also trying to match it

India is better than China as far as human aspects and training are concerned but has lagged behind in technology and production rates of defence equipment, Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Amar Preet Singh said while stressing on the need for ramping up domestic production of fighter jets involving the private sector. To another question, he said Russia has promised to deliver the remaining two S-400 air defence regiments next year.

“We have done our analysis. We don’t have a design to go offensive unnecessarily. Only when we are pushed, we will do something… We have our plans in place. One place I can positively say is we are training much better than them. We have exposure much better than them. We get to know… how they train and how many different Air Forces they interact with and how many do we interact with. As far as human angle is concerned, people behind the machine are concerned we are way ahead of them,”

ACM Singh said addressing the annual press conference ahead of Air Force Day on October 8, 2024. “As far as technology is concerned we may be not so good as of now, we have lagged. We were better than them in technology also sometime back, but we have lagged in that and we need to catch up. As far as production rates are concerned, we are way behind. We need to catch up. That will happen over a period of time, it cannot happen overnight.”

The Air Chief said that by 2047 they aim to have an entire inventory by that time, either produced in India or developed and produced in India.

Acknowledging the delay in the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) TEJAS program with the MK-1A deliveries yet to begin, ACM Singh said their first aim is not to let the fighter aircraft strength go down below 30 squadrons. In this regard, he said that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) must now stick to its promise of producing 24 aircraft every year to offset the delay. They have a third aircraft line in Nashik, it is yet to churn out an aircraft, be noted.

He stressed that private players have to come in to ensure the numbers. “We can’t keep relying on one agency. Even HAL will have limitations,” he stated, given the numbers involved.

The IAF has a tender for 114 fighters jets to be procured under the Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) which has been hugely delayed. The MRFA is needed as on yesterday, the Chief quipped underscoring the urgency.

On the indigenous program lines up, ACM Singh said the TEJAS MK-2 is supposed to do its first flight next year October and December 2027 is supposed to be end of Research & Development for TEJAS MK-2. “If these timelines are met and MRFA is signed parallely we are ok. We are not badly off. But if these timelines are pushed, then we need to look at alternatives.”

To question on the capability of India’s air defence network in the backdrop of the developments between Israel and Iran, the Air Chief said that the systems being procured can do similar functions as Israel’s Iron Dome and other systems. “We have a combination of air defence systems which are fairly competent,” he said while noting that India being a very large country needs large numbers of systems and there is need to prioritize vital and priority areas that need to be protected. “As far as technology, the systems that we have and the systems that we have contracted we have the technology to intercept these missiles,” he added.

(With Inputs From Agencies)