Ready with better tactics where we can't fight China's might: IAF

NEW DELHI: The IAF is ready with `better tactics and techniques’ to deal with challenges in places along the frontier where it cannot counter China’s `might or numbers’, even as the force plans to induct fighters, helicopters, missiles and radars worth Rs 2.5 to 3 lakh crore in the next seven to eight years to tackle the collusive China-Pakistan threat, Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari said on Tuesday.
The IAF is `constantly monitoring’ with ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) capabilities the situation along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control with China, which has upgraded all its air bases facing India and deployed an extensive network of radars and surface-to-air guided weapons (SAGWs) since the military confrontation in eastern Ladakh erupted in April-May 2020.

After also deploying SAGWs and radars, including LLTRs (low-level transportable radars), along the LAC, the IAF is now looking for mountain radars to look equally deep into enemy territory. The People’s Liberation Army-Air Force, incidentally, has more than four times the number of fighters and bombers as compared to the IAF.
“We will continue to remain forward deployed till complete disengagement in eastern Ladakh takes place. Our operational war plans are very dynamic and we keep revising them based on the situation developing across any front,” ACM Chaudhari said, in the run-up to the IAF Day on October 8.
“So, in places where we really cannot counter the might or the numbers of the adversary, we will counter it through better tactics and through better training,” he added.

Referring to the “coordination” between India’s two adversaries, ACM Chaudhari said Pakistan is now manufacturing the Chinese JF-17 `Thunder’ multi-role fighters, while also inducting 25 advanced J-10C jets. The two countries also train together, with their latest `Shaheen’ exercise taking place in northwest China last month.
But ACM Chaudhari exuded confidence, stating that plans were underway to bolster IAF’s combat capabilities with contracts worth Rs 1.72 lakh crore over the next one year.
This includes 97 more Tejas Mark-1A fighters to add to the 83 such jets already ordered under the Rs 46,898 core contract inked with Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) in February 2021.

These 180 Tejas Mark-1A jets, which will cost Rs 1.2 lakh crore, will help the IAF stem the depletion in the number of its fighter squadrons, which is down to just 31 when at least 42 are required. The remaining 60 MiG-21 `Bisons’ are also slated to retire by 2025, with the old fighters slated to take part in the IAF Day flypast at Prayagraj on Sunday for the last time.
Then, there is the Rs 45,000 crore plan for 156 (Army 90, Army 66) more indigenous `Prachand’ light combat helicopters, which are capable of offensive operations in high-altitude areas like Siachen Glacier and eastern Ladakh.
The other deals include additional MR-SAMs (medium-range surface-to-air missile systems), next-generation Akash missile squadrons, Pralay ballistic missiles, high-power radars and five squadrons of the long-range (250-km) air defence missiles to be developed by DRDO under Project Kusha, the IAF chief said.
The upgrade of 84 of the 260 Russian-origin Sukhoi-MKI fighters, with indigenously-designed weapons, electronic warfare systems and the like in the first tranche for around Rs 60,000 crore, is also in the pipeline.

IAF is also hopeful of receiving the remaining two of the five S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile squadrons, under the $5.43 billion contract inked with Russia in 2018, over the next one year after a delay due to the Ukraine war.
The first three S-400 squadrons, which can detect and destroy hostile strategic bombers, jets, spy planes, missiles and drones at a range of 380-km, have been deployed in north-west and east India to cater for both China and Pakistan.