NEW DELHI: Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Arup Raha, who took over as the 24th chief of IAF

on Tuesday, will have to push for faster induction of new fighters, helicop ters, mid-air refuelling aircraft and the like if his force eventually has to be come a truly "expeditionary" aerospace power. His predecessors have set the course for IAF to progressively become capable of swiftly deploying and operating in India's expanding strategic environment sprea ding from Persian Gulf right up to Malacca Strait, and beyond. As per projections, India will spend another $35 billion over the next 10 years to boost its air combat power. IAF is already the world's fourth-largest air for ce after the US, Russia and China, and clocks over 2,30,000 hours of flying ever y year. But there is also the grim reality that close to half its fighter fleet is made of aging and obsolete fighters like MiG-21s and MiG-27s, which add up to over 30 0 jets. Moreover, its inventory of 27 types of aircraft, including six different fighters and eight helicopters, also poses a huge logistical and maintenance ch allenge. ACM Raha realizes his work is cut out for his almost three-year tenure. "IAF is on a trajectory of modernisation. It's transforming into a strategic aerospace p ower with full spectrum capability. Accretion through new acquisitions, replacem ent of obsolete equipment with state-of-the-art inductions and upgrade of the vi ntage weapon platforms will bolster our capabilities," he said, taking over from ACM N A K Browne. While India just last week inked another $1.01 billion contract to acquire six m ore C-130J "Super Hercules" aircraft from the US, after earlier ordering six C-1 30Js and 10 C-17 Globemaster-III strategic airlift aircraft, the sharp fall in t he number of fighter squadrons remains a big worry. IAF is down to just 34 fighter squadrons (16 to 18 jets each) when at least 44 a re needed to be comfortable against China and Pakistan. A booster dose is also r equired for its aging helicopter fleets, air defence systems and radars. Though India is steadily inducting the 272 Sukhoi-30MKI fighters contracted from Russia for around $12 billion, the almost $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project to acquire 126 new fighter jets will remain a top prior ity for ACM Raha. The deal for French Rafale fighters first 18 jets to be import ed, rest licensed produced by Hindustan Aeronautics over six years - is nowhere being inked despite the technical and commercial evaluation process beginning wa y back in August 2007. ACM Raha will also have to make certain the indigenous Tejas light combat aircra ft, which finally received its initial operational clearance recently, is induct ed in its fully-weaponized version as soon as possible. Then, there is also India's biggest defence project in the making, the critical joint development of the stealth fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) with R ussia, which has run into turbulence. Under this gigantic project, India will ev entually end up spending close to $35 billion over the next two decades to induc t over 200 such "swing-role" fighters. Post a comment