Ahead of the 92nd Anniversary of the Indian Air Force, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh addressed a press conference in Delhi.
Air Chief Marshal AP Singh talked about the importance of indigenous weapons manufactured in India, Agniveers, infra development across border, space-based assets and others.
On indigenous weapons, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said, “When it comes to building the capacity, one is capability, another one is capacity. So building the capacity, it becomes important for our manufacturing agencies to come forward and increase their production rate. When it comes to conflict situations, if you are relying on getting your weapons from outside, there will always be different interests and changing interests which can create a choke point for you. If you need to fight the war, you have to have them being manufactured in India. You cannot afford to have them being bought and rely on that supply chain. It is imperative that we have these things being produced in India…we can’t be stocking up everything forever. These things will have life. If we keep stocking up, we’ll have wastage.”
Speaking about the Agniveers, AP Singh said, “Our feedback on Agniveers has been very positive. We were asked if we could absorb more than 25% Agniveer and we said that we could. The decision has to be taken by the government.”
Working With ISRO For Space-Based Assets
He informed that program to increase the space-based assets is going on and IAF is working with the ISRO on it. “Whatever we are buying, we have systems that can do what the Iron Dome can do. We will need large numbers but we can’t protect all the areas across the country and we have to prioritise requirements. IAF doesn’t have any preferences and we have our requirements. There are no particular preferences. The need is to take decisions quickly and the aircraft should be made in India. As far as space-based systems are concerned, we have been saying that air and space are continuous. We are working with the ISRO to work on that. Our programme to increase our space-based assets is going on. The training for working in space-based assets is also going on,” added Air Chief Marshal AP Singh.
Infra Development Across Border
AP Singh mentioned that India is upgrading and strengthening its infrastructure along the border. He said, “As far as Eastern Ladakh is concerned, the infra development on the other side is rapid. We are also matching up and new airfields are coming up at Nyoma (village in Ladakh) and also beefing up existing capabilities.”
He said that Airfields are being upgraded in the Central sector. “We have to decide on the route to be taken for the procurement (of 114 new fighter aircraft). We are right now looking at the DAP-2020 for the 114 multi role fighter programme and we want it to be Made in India,” added AP Singh.
Project Kusha And Other Air-Guided Weapons
Talking about the induction of weapons, AP Singh said that IAF is looking at inducting the long-range surface to air-guided weapons like the Kusha. He informed that large number of Akash missiles have been inducted. They are further looking at Akash-NG missile.
“Agniveers will make the Indian Air Force proud. If you are relying outside, they can choke you. If you want to fight the war like it is being fought where 200-300 missiles are being fired, you need to have them made indigenously,” said Air Chief Marshal AP Singh.
Speaking about the production challenge of Aircrafts, AP Singh said that private industry needs to come up to meet the challenges. “It is a known fact that the Tejas aircraft has been delayed. If the promise of producing 24 aircraft per year, that delay can be addressed. We need to look at private players coming in. HAL has also its own limitations and looking at the numbers involved, we need the private industry to chip in to meet the production challenges,” said the Air Chief Marshal.
AP Singh reinstated India’s capability to combat enemies. “We have the capability to strike our enemies in foreign lands and we showed it in the Balakot air strikes,” said Air Chief Marshal.
