Building the fighter fleet

In the face of combat aircraft shortfall and changing warfare dynamics, the IAF's acceptance of indigenous defence systems marks a positive shift in strategy TULUSTRATIO

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first PM to take a sortie in the indigenous Tejas Mark 1 fighter aircraft.

This display of confidence follows several Ministry of Defence (MOD) declarations that the shortfall of combat aircraft in the Indian Air Force (IAF) was being addressed through "Made in India” indigenous acquisitions. Even so, there is little reason to believe that the IAF's fighter aircraft fleet will expand anytime soon from its current size of 30 squadrons to the 42-squadron fleet that MoD planners say is required to ward off the two large air forces of China and Pakistan. With each squadron comprising 21 aircraft, the IAF faces a shortfall of more than 250 fighters. Add to that the navy's shortfall of more than 50 fighter aircraft needed to fly from its two aircraft carriers, and the deficiency rises to over 300 fighters.

These shortfalls severely compromise the IAF's ability to carry out its allocated wartime tasks. These include air defence, or safeguarding national airspace by damaging enemy airfields and radar installations, thus preventing the enemy's air forces from inflicting damage on our own air infrastructure. Our deep interdiction capability would also be blunted, reducing our ability to destroy or damage the enemy's road and railways infrastructure, ammunition and fuel depots, and military headquarters. So too would be our capability for battlefield interdiction, or destruction of enemy military installations in and around the combat zone, such as field headquarters, logistic installations and artillery gun positions. Finally, and most damaging, would be the erosion of our combat air support capability or the IAF's direct fire support to operations by our ground forces.

This capability gap has developed over decades.