Air Force became more powerful, but the requirements were not yet met

Rafale's arrival is good news, but to be self-sufficient, the country needs 200 more fighter aircraft by 2030.

Madan Jada

Euro Chief, Hindustan

The Air Force has received the first batch of Rafale fighter jets. Undoubtedly, this has increased the strength of the Air Force, but the requirements of the Air Force facing the security challenges of China's double front with Pakistan will not be met by just 36 Rafale. It needs at least two hundred more fighter jets by 2030 to be self-sufficient on these fronts. Not only this, one third of these aircraft should be fifth generation.

Buys or waits for HAL's aircraft to be ready.

It is clear that preparations are not being made according to the future needs of the Air Force, but there are many challenges in the preparations that have been made. Timely production of indigenous fighter aircraft 'Tejas' remains a challenge even today. A similar challenge is about the AMCA project. HAL will also prepare this project. The government is planning to purchase 114 multi-purpose fighter aircraft in the country through technology transfer. These are possible to build with the private sector in strategic partnership. Meanwhile, under the self-sufficient India campaign, an idea has also come to replace Tejas. But the question is, is HAL ready to discharge such responsibilities? Are private companies in this area

Timely production of the indigenous fighter aircraft Tejas is still a challenge. Tejas are to be made for the Navy along with the Air Force.

Will you come to invest in? The government's views are good, but it is also necessary that capacity should be increased in the private sector along with government defense undertakings to implement the ideas.

Whenever the defense needs in the country are assessed, then the threat of China is taken into consideration. Due to this, the need of 42 squadrons of fighter aircraft was felt for the Air Force, but to date we have only 31 squadrons worth of fighter aircraft. But the challenge is not so full. Of these, 38 are very old MiG-21s, which are to be removed by the end of this year. Similarly, Jaguarki has six Squadoon Air Force, of which 91 aircraft are currently available and can be upgraded for another ten years. But the Air Force in its assessment found that the cost of upgrading them is very high, better than that in buying new aircraft.

The new acquisitions that have just started include 36 Rafale, 88 Tejas, 21 MiG-29s and 12 Sukhois. This acquisition process does not compensate for aircraft moving out of the fleet. Apart from these, procurement of 114 multi-purpose fighter aircraft is under consideration. However, by including these aircraft, in 2032, the Air Force will have barely 33 squadrons.

On the other hand, when we compare China, it currently has about 40 active squadrons, most of them are from the fourth generation. Some time ago he joined J-20 Stealth Fighter. Ten squads of this fifth generation fighter aircraft will be prepared by China in the next ten years. But the first flight of the fifth generation fighter aircraft Advanced Multirole Combat Aircraft (AMCA) being developed by HAL is proposed in 2023-24. India has already backed out of the FGF's plan to create a fifth generation Sukhoi with Russia. Therefore, it is up to the government to decide whether it is the fifth generation fighter aircraft

There are some other issues. Like, Air Force aircraft accidents are still more in our country. The government recently told the Parliament that in 1990-95, Harsal was the victim of 27 aircraft accidents, but in 2015 18, it has averaged up to seven per year. Not only have they become victims of the old Mig accident, Sukhoi has also happened. Secondly, the fleet of Air Force fighter aircraft currently has six types of aircraft, including MiG, Sukhoi, Jaguar, Mirage, Rafael and Tejas.

International experience shows that if there are only one, two or three types of aircraft in the fleet operationally, the results are much better. So the Air Force will have to focus on these issues as well.