Indian Air Force Chief BS Dhanoa said here on Tuesday the force is ready to fight all spectrum of war ranging from conventional to terrorism and developments undertaken after the Kargil war in 1999 have enabled the IAF to be prepared for handling all challenges.
Speaking at a seminar on 20 years of Kargil, the IAF chief said the force now has the capabilities to conduct precision bombing, like in the case of Balakot aerial strikes, which was limited during Kargil.
During the Kargil conflict, precision bombing capabilities which existed only on Mirage-2000 are now also available on Su-30, Jaguar, MiG-29 and MiG-27 Upg aircraft. Moreover, beyond visual range(BVR) Missiles are NOW carried by MiG-29, Su-30 and Mirage-2000 aircraft, he added.
Dhanoa said “the IAF is prepared to fight across the entire spectrum of warfare, be it an all-out war, a skirmish like Kargil conflict or retaliation to a terrorist attack.”
He was the commanding officer of 17 squadron and was operating from Srinagar during the Kargil conflict in 1999. Speaking about his experiences, the IAF chief recounted the operational limitations that existed in 1999 and the innovative ways adopted by the IAF to overcome the difficulties during the conflict.
The developments which took place post Kargil war have transformed the Indian Air Force in capability so as to counter any kind of air threat in conventional and sub-conventional domains of warfare, Dhanoa said. IAF now has the capability to monitor the airspace deep inside the enemy territory and operates on secure communication with network-centric warfare capabilities.