00:00When you look at this entire spectrum of conflict and when you say air force should be the platform
00:06of choice for the government, if we were to talk about punishing Pakistan state sponsored
00:11radical Islamist terror, air force was the choice to send across a message, did that
00:17point of deterrence work and that time you didn't have the Rafals, when the Pakistanis
00:25sent a very big package the very next day with their AMRAAMs, air to air missiles, were
00:32our Sukhois capable enough to take them on, in your appreciation what more do we need
00:39given the kind of spectrum, given the kind of hostile neighbours, you know the navy chief
00:43said you can't change your neighbours, the army chief said exactly the same and we know
00:46what both our neighbours are like, what is it that you require sir?
00:51I think everybody understands you have to fight with the weapon which is better than
00:57the enemy in case you want to win, so we call it stick length, from what distance you can
01:04fire your weapon and get a kill, so if they can fire the weapon ahead of me, obviously
01:09I cannot reach that point where I can fire my weapon, our aircraft will be destroyed
01:14before that, so with advancement in technology we need to do this catching up part, so Sukhois
01:20did their job and also along with that there are tactics that we have to employ, in case
01:28we land up in a situation where the enemy aircraft is a higher tech aircraft if you
01:35say, there are tactics employed, you have numbers coming in for a single aircraft or
01:43something like that, so there is a mix of both, the technology and tactics, we have
01:48to keep studying our adversary, what they have and keep developing our tactics for that
01:54and of course keep procuring new technologies.
01:57Are our adversaries the way they are colluding, Navy Chief was talking about how China is
02:03giving ships and submarines to Pakistan, there are reports and how credible are these that
02:10China is actually giving its older fifth generation fighter aircraft to Pakistan as it takes the
02:17new ones for itself to checkmate us, plus Pakistan is getting money to repair its F-16s.
02:23Does that give a terror state an unfair advantage over us in your appreciation?
02:29I really don't know whether we call it unfair or fair because it is war that they are talking
02:36about, so advantage yes, it will give them advantage if we don't catch up with that technology,
02:42this is in the intelligence domain and open source intelligence that yes, there are talks
02:49going on of fifth gen aircraft being given to Pakistan, so we need to accelerate and
02:55make sure that we are not found wanting, something like when they got their BVRs, we were that
03:01time for some time on the defensive till we got our BVRs and now that we had Rafales,
03:07we knew that we can take on any kind of BVR, but again this is actually, it is a cat and
03:12mouse game which will keep happening and maybe if we can anticipate it a little earlier,
03:17we can push ourselves to go to that stage before they reach, nothing like it.
03:24My father used to be an ace military strategist and researcher, so I decided to take some
03:29inspiration from him, I didn't have the intellectual framework, so I used artificial intelligence
03:35and I am going to show you a visualization which I think is important, this project just
03:39so that you understand, this projects into the future, if the build up in the Chinese
03:47Air Force and the Pakistani Air Force continues at the rate at which they have announced and
03:53if the Indian Air Force squadron strength and you would understand this that you know
03:58for example some MiG-21s, some MiG-27s, in a few years these squadrons will be phased
04:03out of the Indian Air Force, if no new purchases beyond what we know are announced and if the
04:11depletion continues, remember we are entitled to 42 squadrons Karav, that's the strength
04:18we should have, we could potentially in a worst case scenario come down to 25 squadrons
04:25in 2040 and if the light combat aircraft which is currently running delayed but we are trying
04:33to get it to work, if that happens then in 2040 we could have 35, but essentially the
04:40prognosis and the path and which is what the Air Chief tried to draw the country's attention
04:45to is quite dire.
04:48Now this is the graph that it looks like and I know that there are sensitivities around
04:52what you can and cannot say, so I will be you know careful and mindful of that, but
04:56my question to you sir is this, that virtually every few weeks in the Russia-Ukraine war
05:04we have seen the capabilities and capacities of drones being augmented, new drones are
05:09being manufactured while the war is going on, when we decide to buy a legacy weapon
05:14system whether say it's an F-35, more Rafales or whatever it is that you think is most required,
05:21you are looking out 15-20 years into the future, given the speed of acceleration of technology,
05:27you know how do we know what we actually want because by the time the Boeing or you know
05:33the French actually make it, God knows where technology will be at at that moment, so how
05:37are you looking at this very real challenge?
05:39So firstly good work done, I think we need to hire you, I feel positively, really I am
05:48returning the praise for us.
05:50I can't afford to pay you, but I will hire you in the name ofâŚ
05:54For the armed forces I will work for free sir, you don't need to pay me at all, I
05:56will come and work for free.
05:57So you come and work with us, this is a good analysis you have done, but of course this
06:02is slightly pessimistic view that you have taken.
06:05I said if nothing new gets announced.
06:07Yeah, that's what I am saying, it's a pessimistic view, it will not happen that
06:09nothing new will come in, I am sure you know people are working at it that will get new,
06:14but the question that you asked, it's always a challenge, so actually we are chasing technology,
06:22what you are saying is that we are chasing technology.
06:24We need to reach a stage where we are calling the shots, that means the new technology comes
06:28out of India and others are chasing it.
06:31So I am sure we have the brains in India to get into that mode that we design something,
06:39so I was listening to some part of Navy Chief's talk with you, in that he said that they have
06:47a special cell which they have made, similarly under the Deputy Chief which is for procurement,
06:53we also have a separate cell which deals with all the MSMEs, new start-ups and we take out
07:02books of what we need, where are we looking at, so in case they have a technology which
07:07can be modified, which can be merged together, technologies which can be merged together
07:13to make a system for us, they come out with their ideas and they are supported, they are
07:17taken to the flying station, they are shown operations so that they understand because
07:21half the time they are working in the silos, they don't understand and they make a product
07:25when it comes out and then we say no, sorry it doesn't suit my purpose.
07:29So now we are working together with this small industry.
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