India’s fighter aircraft strength will be down to 31 squadrons by the end of the year, down from 42. It will further reduce when Mirage 2000, MiG-29, and Jaguar squadrons are phased out.
India has paid a steep price for HAL’s unchecked dominance, evident in the MiG-era overhauls, the decades-long Tejas saga, and the troubled ALH programme.
With AMCA rollout expected to take a decade, Defence Secretary Rajesh Singh confirms talks for fifth-gen jets amid reports of Pakistan acquiring Chinese stealth fighters.
EOI was marked a historic shift in defence procurement & industrial participation policy since this meant that HAL will have to bid along with private firms to bag the contract.
In the latest episode of ThePrint’s ‘Off The Cuff’, former air force chief VR Chaudhari spoke at length about Operation Sindoor and its impact on the IAF’s future.
Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh said IAF was mostly outward looking when it came to procurements but a 'rap on the knuckles' made it look inwards, adding that 'atmanirbharta' is key.
HAL has so far been the only entity in India to manufacture fighter planes. It will now have to compete against private companies, like TATA, Adani, L&T and other interested players.
China’s rapid military modernisation is altering the regional power balance to the detriment of India’s security. India needs to pivot toward a multi-domain defence strategy.
France and India have been in talks for a collaboration on AMCA engines since last year. Safran is in competition with the UK’s Rolls Royce and the American GE.
New bill aims to fix key issues with IBC 2016, including delays & patchy implementation, and protect creditors, with window for genuine promoters to retain control of their companies.
Billed as the military’s own version of Raisina Dialogue, the event will spotlight on tech-driven warfighting, lessons from Operation Sindoor and release of three new doctrines.
Now that both IAF and PAF have made formal claims of having shot down the other’s aircraft in the 87-hour war in May, we can ask a larger question: do such numbers really matter?
General offr good to know the olive guys are realising the centrality of air power in 21st century.
However, while the thoughts expressed by you are logical but I differ with your reluctance to be critical with the imported idea of theatre command.
With no out of area contingency plans in place or desired the limited resources of IAF can not do justice to any such ideas.
I fail to understand why you can’t call out this army generals fetish for what it was thought to be i.e. under command resources and mathematical fetish of resource allocation in proportion of head count .
Still can’t agree with you more for sense of urgency required to equip IAF with contemporary weapon platforms.
No doubt IAF needs a transformation. However as one air-force pilot explained, fighter jets are increasingly becoming replaced by drones, missiles, etc. There are only two 5G fighters available for India to buy, SU-57 and F-35, but neither is up to the standard IAF needs. Also the so called 5th fighter jets are captured by Indian radars, hence Rafales and SU-30 MKIs are sufficient. India needs to have more missiles and drones, more space capabilities and get engines faster with all servicing capabilities in India itself and increase its capacity to build Tejas Mk2. Also AMCA must be upgraded to 6G.
Socialism addicted India can afford to but only one 1G fighter jet. Itna paisa mein itnaich milega. If comrade Kejriwal becomes the prime minister, India will not but even that 1G fighter jet also.
General offr good to know the olive guys are realising the centrality of air power in 21st century.
However, while the thoughts expressed by you are logical but I differ with your reluctance to be critical with the imported idea of theatre command.
With no out of area contingency plans in place or desired the limited resources of IAF can not do justice to any such ideas.
I fail to understand why you can’t call out this army generals fetish for what it was thought to be i.e. under command resources and mathematical fetish of resource allocation in proportion of head count .
Still can’t agree with you more for sense of urgency required to equip IAF with contemporary weapon platforms.
No doubt IAF needs a transformation. However as one air-force pilot explained, fighter jets are increasingly becoming replaced by drones, missiles, etc. There are only two 5G fighters available for India to buy, SU-57 and F-35, but neither is up to the standard IAF needs. Also the so called 5th fighter jets are captured by Indian radars, hence Rafales and SU-30 MKIs are sufficient. India needs to have more missiles and drones, more space capabilities and get engines faster with all servicing capabilities in India itself and increase its capacity to build Tejas Mk2. Also AMCA must be upgraded to 6G.
Socialism addicted India can afford to but only one 1G fighter jet. Itna paisa mein itnaich milega. If comrade Kejriwal becomes the prime minister, India will not but even that 1G fighter jet also.