IAF may be fully ready To Deal With A ‘TWO-FRONT’ War Scenario However Govt must provide additional resources
Addressing a press conference the Chief of Air Staff said India is fully ready to deal with a “two-front” war scenario involving China and Pakistan and that the focus has been to enhance the IAF’s overall combat capabilities.
As per the Chief, the IAF is fully prepared to deal with any security challenge in eastern Ladakh and that new infrastructure created by the Chinese side in the region will not affect India’s combat readiness. He said the IAF’s strike capability has become more potent with induction of Rafale jets and various weapons.
The Indian Air Force is committed to the Theaterisation programme and the initiative needs to be taken forward considering various key aspects involving the three forces, said Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari. He also added that that discussions are required before new structures are put in place.
“Various options are being discussed among three forces,” the IAF chief said.
The theatre commands are being planned to integrate capabilities of the three services and to ensure optimal utilization of their resources.
However the duty of the Nation and the Government of the day is to provide the required resources to the best of its ability and in time, to ensure that IAF does not remain handicapped.
To this end, IAF must comes up to at least 50 squadrons by 2030. This is not an impossible target. With retirement of Bisons and a squadron of oldest Jaguars, we will still have a total of 31 Squadrons (15x Sukhois (270 jets), 3x Mirages, 4x MiG29s, 5x Jaguars, 2x Tejas and 2x Rafales).
With HAL / Private Company establishing one more manufacturing line of 20 jets, by 2030, we can surely add 4x Tejas Mk1A, 6x Tejas Mk2 and maybe 1x Shreyas the AMCA. To this the Govt must strive to add 2x Squadrons of Rafale and 6x Squadrons of SU57 MKIs.
By 2030, IAF also needs at least 6x AWACS, 12x AWE&CS, 12x Refuellers apart from a few squadrons of a 20ton transport aircraft.
There is also a need to incorporate all the missiles and drones, both armed and unarmed in all our offensive and defensive roles of the IAF. Drone warfare needs to be concentrated upon in a big way.
Also, the new air chief should ensure that the Defence Space Agency (DSA), set up in May 2019, gets fully operational and is on its way to become a full fledged Space Command.
