What does IAF require to combat hostile neighbours? Here is what IAF chief said

India Today

Air Force Chief AP Singh in a conversation with India Today News Director Rahul Kanwal and Managing Editor Gaurav Sawant at India Today Conclave 2025 talked about what the Indian Air Force requires to combat India's hostile neighbors.

Transcript

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 of…

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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