A Flight Delay

The defence ministry’s quest to buy jets is flying at biplane speed

- Sandeep Unnithan

THE INDIAN AIR FORCE WILL CELEBRATE its 85th anniversary on October 8 under a dark cloud—due to its shrinking fighter squadrons. The IAF is now down to 33 squadrons from a high of 39.5 over a decade ago (each with a strength of 18 jets), much lower than its authorised strength of 42 squadrons. Over the next five years, these numbers will dip into the 20s when the IAF completely phases out 11 squadrons of ageing MiG-21 jets (a total of around 220 jets). The replacements for these single-engined workhorses, the mainstay of the IAF since the 1970s, have been marked by delays stretching over a decade.

In 2015, the defence ministry under Manohar Parrikar decided to split this requirement for at least 220 single engined jets between the indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft and a foreign single-engined fighter which would be built within the country in collaboration with a private sector firm. Both these lines of approach are now facing troubles.

In 2005, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) had promised to deliver 40 LCA Mark-1 fighters by 2018. Production delays have led to it delivering only four fighters till date. The delivery of 83 LCA Mark1A, for a total of 123 Tejas, is still farther away. The government’s strategic partnership (SP) policy, which was to select a foreign firm to locally build a single-engined fighter, has once again slipped into the slow track. Under the SP policy, first recommended by the Dhirendra Singh committee in 2015, the Indian private sector would locally manufacture urgently-needed fighter jets, submarines and military helicopters worth over $30 billion in collaboration with foreign equipment manufacturers.