China is rapidly developing infrastructure on its side across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and India is also matching up by improving its airfields in the border areas, IAF chief AP Singh said here on Friday.
He also said while India is ahead of China in terms of training, it lags behind in technology and rate of defence production and called for faster pace of developing and manufacturing weapon systems within the country. The Air Force Chief said the aim of the IAF is to achieve total self-reliance by 2047.
The IAF Chief said India has the capabilities to intercept any incoming missile but lack the numbers. He made this observation when asked whether like Israel, which a few days ago intercepted most of the 200 missiles fired by Iran, India can also do the same.
He pointed out India is a much bigger country in terms of size compared to Israel and will prioritise in defending vital strategic installations if attacked by missiles.
Making these assertions here during the annual press conference ahead of the Air Force Day on October 8, he said India is modernising its airfields along the borders with China and using advanced landing grounds (ALG) in central sector. Comparing the two countries, the Air Chief said India is better than China as far as human aspects and training are concerned but has lagged behind in technology and production rates of defence equipment.
“We have done our analysis. We don’t have a design to go offensive unnecessarily. Only when we are pushed, we will do something… We have our plans in place. One place I can positively say is we are training much better than them. We have exposure much better than them. We get to know… how they train and how many different Air Forces they interact with and how many do we interact with. As far as human angle is concerned, people behind the machine are concerned we are way ahead of them,” he said. “As far as technology is concerned we may be not so good as of now, we have lagged. We were better than them in technology also sometime back, but we have lagged in that and we need to catch up. As far as production rates are concerned, we are way behind. We need to catch up. That will happen over a period of time, it cannot happen overnight.”
Acknowledging the delay in the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas programme with the MK-1A deliveries yet to begin, IAF chief said their first aim is not to let the fighter aircraft strength go down below 30 squadrons. In this regard, he said Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) must now stick to its promise of producing 24 aircraft every year to offset the delay. They have a third aircraft line in Nashik, it is yet to churn out an aircraft, be noted.
He stressed that private players have to come in to ensure the numbers. “We can’t keep relying on one agency. Even HAL will have limitations,” he stated, given the numbers involved.
