00:00Now, Air Marshal Khosla, currently we have 29 combat squadrons.
00:04Of course, the sanction limit is of 42.
00:06But some of the experts say that in order to be completely, you know, have good deterrence towards enemies,
00:13we need to have at least 50 combat squadrons.
00:16Now, I have two questions.
00:18The number of combat squadrons that we have currently,
00:21is it enough if there is a two-front war with China and Pakistan?
00:26And secondly, I want to know, till the time we wait for these combat squadrons to expand
00:31and meet at least its sanction limit, what all complementary and alternative options do we have?
00:39Yeah, you know, that question is being bugging everyone and even while in the service,
00:44as well as the defense experts and everyone.
00:47See, the fact is that we are very low at the moment as far as the strength is concerned.
00:52And this 42 or 45, whatever, this was in 1962 vintage, when, you know, of course,
00:57in 1962 war, this was worked out.
01:01Now, the world has moved on.
01:02Both our enemies, you know, Pakistan and China,
01:04their capabilities have increased manyfold from those days.
01:08So, if you do a fresh review, more probably this figure will work out much more.
01:13You mentioned a figure of 50.
01:14I have heard various figures, 45 to going to 70.
01:18You talked about deterrence.
01:21So, you have to maintain a minimum deterrence value where your enemies, you know,
01:25consider three times before doing anything against you.
01:29That is what deterrence is.
01:30And minimum deterrence value depends on the amount of enemies,
01:33how many enemies you have, what are their capabilities,
01:36and what is their attitude.
01:37And if you see both our adversaries, they are moving way ahead.
01:39China is marching way ahead of us.
01:41They are competing with the U.S.
01:43and they are pulling Pakistan also along.
01:45So, if you do a fresh review, maybe the figure will come out much more.
01:49Then, I will take a minute more, you know, on this question,
01:51because it is a very important question.
01:53And a lot of experts also say with the modern technology coming in,
01:56it can be offset the numbers.
01:58True, the numbers can be offset,
02:00but a balance has to be maintained between, you know,
02:03the fighter's drones as well as the other long trade vectors
02:07as well as drones you talked about earlier.
02:09So, a balance structure needs to be maintained.
02:11But the fact of the matter is that numbers of,
02:14as well as quantity and quality of fighters we need to increase.
02:18That's a requirement.
02:20That's why the government has realized and given a push in this matter
02:23as well as indigenization is concerned,
02:25the stages, stages of Mark 1, AMCA, Mark 2, and then AMCA,
02:29as well as also, you know, on the directors and drones.
02:35Then we need combat enablers or combat support aircraft
02:38like, you know, refuelers and avacs.
02:40Then we need modern weapon systems.
02:43I mean, there is no shortcut to it.
02:46We need to spend money and we need to expedite our self-reliance.
02:49We need to install this.
03:01Just to seek help others out there,
03:02we need things that just need to be able to digest into some
03:05things that are applied for.
03:06Because we need to print one third page.
03:08Of course, if we need short Frage,
03:10we should want to Nai"!
03:11Yeah, it's a good question about it.
03:12We need to pull those rough plans together.
03:13We need to have a plan toNE.
03:14We need to put our interests together and together.
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