New Delhi: In his first public address since Operation Sindoor, Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh lamented the constant delays in defence projects, and failure to stick to delivery schedules, especially of fighter jets.
He also expressed hope that when India’s homegrown Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) is ready, it will be at par with its contemporaries and not dated.
The outspoken IAF chief quoted dialogues from Salman Khan’s movie Wanted and the words of Winston Churchill to drive home the point that commitments given to the armed forces have to be adhered to and the industry should step up and deliver.
He said that the forces have refrained from calling “black sheep as black sheep”.
Air Chief Marshal Singh admitted that the IAF was mostly outward looking when it came to procurements but a “rap on the knuckles” made it look inwards. “Atmanirbharta” (self-sufficiency) in defence is key, he added.
Speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Annual Business Summit, he underlined the importance of the air force and said air power is integral to both naval and land power.
He also spoke on the success of Operation Sindoor: “This was an operation which was executed in a professional manner, by every agency, forces. Since we were taking the part of truth, God was also with us.”
ACM Singh further said Operation Sindoor has shown where warfare is headed and what to expect in the future.
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‘AMCA should be a contemporary’
Talking about the AMCA, he refused to call it a fifth generation fighter. “AMCA, I am not calling it what generation because finally when it comes out, it should be of contemporary generation,” he said, welcoming the government’s decision to allow private players to bid for the project.
As reported by ThePrint, five prototypes of the AMCA are set to be rolled out by 2031, with production from 2035.
DRDO chief Samir V Kamat, speaking to the media at the same event, said the first prototype will be out by late 2029 and all five will be out by 2031.
However, the problem is that while India has set a 10-year timeline for the fighter, China—which has two variants of fifth generation fighters in service—has already introduced two new fighters which it terms as sixth generation.
Talking about military plans, ACM Singh said that while he is aware that India “is a sea-faring nation and we need to be a big naval power, I think whether it is land power or naval power, air force will always remain and air power will have to be intrinsic to both of these”.
“Any kind of operation we do, we can’t do without air power. And I think it has been proved very well in this operation (Op Sindoor) also,” he added.
The Air Chief Marshal further said that when it comes to air power, the country needs to make sure it has both capability and capacity. “We cannot just talk about producing in India. We need to start designing and developing in India. When it comes to producing in India in numbers, the capacity comes in.”.
He further said: “I am not saying we have come to this path on our own. There were times when we were always doubting the Indian industry that it cannot give us the kind of return that we want, the kind of product we want.”
“We were looking outwards more but over the last decade plus, things have changed quite a bit. A rap on our knuckles have made us think inwards and look inwards and then we realized there are a lot of opportunities for us within India. And now also, the current situation in the world has made us realise that atmanirbharta is the only solution,” he added.
‘We have to be now-ready’
“Pran jaaye par vachan na jaye. Ek baar maine commit kiya hai, main apni bhi nahi sunta,” the IAF chief said, quoted from the movie Wanted. “We have to be now-ready to be future ready. That is the concern. Yes, I can look at the next ten years, we will have more output from the Indian industry, from the DRDO, but what is required today is required today. We need to quickly get our act together, maybe get into some quick Make-in-India programmes, so that we can get the now-ready part of it while design in India continues to produce results in the near future or maybe later.”
The ACM went on to say that Operation Sindoor was successful because the whole nation was in mission mode and the same approach needed to be continued to empower the defence forces.
“Timelines are a big issue. Once a timeline is given… not a single project that I can think of has been completed on time. So this is something we have to look at…Why should we promise something which cannot be achieved? While signing the contract itself, sometimes we are sure that it is not going to come up, but we just sign the contract. Uske baad dekhenge kya karna hai. Of course the process gets vitiated,” he said.
This was a direct reference to the contract for the 83 Tejas Mk-1A contract signed in 2021, delivery of which is yet to start.
ThePrint had in 2021 reported that while the IAF had signed the contract with HAL, the fear was that the delivery would not start in time. The first aircraft was to be handed over to the IAF in February last year.
Talking about restraint, ACM Singh said, “Even defence forces have been keeping this restraint of not calling a black sheep a black sheep. We have been encouraging people but somewhere it will break down. I am sure, let’s stretch the elastic to the point it is not breaking down.”
‘More investment in R&D’
He also said there is a need for higher investment in R&D (Research and Development). “I think people from the Punjabi community will understand something called ‘Dasvandh’, that ten percent of our earnings should go back towards society…I think something on those lines we should start that if I am earning so much, some amount of money should go towards R&D, defence of the nation…”
ACM Singh further spoke about the need for better incentives to retain people in India. “We need to create incentives, some good environment, so that we are able to get the best people for the job. We are not able to get the best people for the job. People are going outwards, people are working for other countries. I think we need to retain them by paying them good incentives, good working environment.”
Quoting Churchill’s famous words, he said, “To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing…What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.”
Urging private players to come forward and take the lead, he said, “My request to you all will be that this could be your finest hour. So please rise to the occasion, come together. If somebody is manufacturing world class cars or equipment in the civil space, why can’t that industry or some of them join together and say we will create world class military equipment even if it does not give me the profit I am looking for?”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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