looking at the ongoing Doklam stand-off between India and China, Indian Air Force is ready to face any eventualities arising out of the conflict. Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa has asserted on Friday in Bengaluru that Air Force is ready to face any eventualities. He was here to inaugurate the 56th Annual Conference organised by the Indian Institute of Aerospace Medicine. He was replying to a question on the preparedness of the IAF to face any eventuality in the wake of a stand-off between the Indian and Chinese troops in the Doklam sector in Bhutan.
Earlier, addressing the gathering, Dhanoa said grounding of pilots on medical grounds was a tremendous loss to the IAF and also adversely affected the morale of the individuals concerned.
“Your scientific work may provide hope to the aviators, who have overcome medical ailments, to return to active flying duties,” he said. In his inaugural address, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said, IAF’s mission is to build a modern, flexible and credible aerospace power with full spectrum capability to safeguard our national interests. “Aerospace medicine training for the aircrew is an integral part of operational pilot training. The high performance human centrifuge, disorientation simulators and the latest ejection procedure simulator at aeromedical training centres (AMTCs) have imparted quality training to pilots”, he added.
Dhanoa had, in a media interview in July, said there had been a tremendous jump in the capabilities of the Air Force from the time of the 1999 Kargil war and the ability to operate day and night and in all weather conditions had shown a significant increase in the last 18 years. He had also said the ability to keep a vigil along the border had increased, as had the IAF’s reconnaissance capabilities.
In a message to his men, Dhanoa had said they should be ready to execute operations in a very short time with whatever they had and not with what they were supposed to have.
According to an official of the Indian Defence Ministry recently the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC) comprising chiefs of the Army, the Navy and the Indian Air Force had reviewed the security preparedness of the three services including along the Sino-India border.
The stand-off between Armies of India and China in Doklam and attempts by Chinese troops to enter the Indian territory along the banks of Pangong lake in ladakh were also discussed at the meeting. The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a bitter face-off at Doklam in India-China-Bhutan tri-junction for little over two months.
China has been ramping up rhetoric against India, demanding immediate withdrawal of Indian troops from Doklam. The Chinese state media, particularly, has carried a barrage of critical articles on the Doklam stand-off slamming India.