Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh on Friday again raised his concern over the depleting strength of his fleet of fighter aircraft. He said the force needs 35-40 jets each year to meet the existing capacity deficiency, which will continue with the phasing out of ageing Mirages, MiG-29s, and Jaguars in coming years.
Speaking at the Chanakya Dialogues conclave here, the Air Force chief also said that at least 35-40 military aircraft need to be manufactured in India every year, and the capacity cannot be built overnight.
However, at the conclave, which was themed “Bharat 2047: Atmanirbhar In War,” he stressed that the target is not impossible to meet.
“The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has promised to produce 24 Tejas Mark-1A jets next year, I am happy with that,” said Singh.
The IAF Chief had earlier castigated Maharatna Defence PSU over the delay in the Tejas fighter delivery and stated that he has no confidence in HAL, which created a storm as rarely have heads of armed forces spoken out critically against government-owned defence companies.
He was of the view that private players may be roped in to expedite the delivery timelines of Tejas Mark-1A fighters, citing the C295 production model, which is a joint venture of Tata Advanced System Ltd and Airbus.
“If some private industry comes in for a make in India, let’s say, we add another maybe 12-18 aircraft per year from their side. So we are reaching that number. So that is possible,” the Chief said.
The Chief of Air Staff pitched for indigenous aircraft over imported provided they got them on time.
“So I’m very convinced in my mind that even if a homegrown system gives me a slightly lesser performance… if it is 90 percent or 85 percent of what I get in the world market, we will go for homegrown system because that is the only way we can get over with always looking outward to get our systems,” he said.
“But at the same time, a homegrown system cannot just happen overnight. It will take time and it needs to be supported. So for that, Indian Air Force is fully committed to any R&D project,” Singh said.
Singh also threw his weight around domestic defence equipment to wage long wars.
“We need to be able to take on this long protracted war, for which we need the capacity to be able to come up with a production rate that will be required for the weapons during war,” the IAF chief said.
