In the run-up to the 78th Air Force Day, air chief marshal PV Naik said on Monday, 'There is 50% obsolescence in equipment and weapons, but we plan to bring it down to 20% by 2014-15.'
Indian Air Force (IAF), whose 50% inventory is obsolete, has shown interest in Israel’s Iron Dome concept. Israel adopted the air defence concept to safeguard the country from Hezbollah rockets and artillery shells after the Lebanon war.
In the run-up to the 78th Air Force Day, air chief marshal PV Naik said on Monday, “There is 50% obsolescence in equipment and weapons, but we plan to bring it down to 20% by 2014-15.”
He was addressing the annual press conference ahead of Air Force Day on October 8.
IAF is geared for a multi-front war and may be providing an air defence cover to the Commonwealth Games, but it lags when it comes to capability build-up and defence preparedness.
The Iron Dome concept secures a country from all aerial threats. A source said Israel had not been approached by India, but IAF aimed to achieve a blanket air defence cover by 2020.
With its depleting fleet of obsolete Russian SA-3 Pechora and OSA-AK missile systems inducted in the 1980s, IAF pushed for indigenous ground equipment modification in 2006. After the government refused to entertain Polish and Russian upgrades, it is in desperate need of missile squadrons to plug gaping holes in air defence.
Of the 60 Pechoras which were bought between 1974 and 1990, only 24 are operational.
For the first time disclosing numbers of fifth-generation fighter aircraft, the air chief said anywhere between 200 and 250 of the stealth fighters would be developed with Russia, and they would start coming in 2017 onwards.
The force also has a shortage of fighter pilots, which, Naik said “is between 550 and 600”. “But the attrition rate has been positive for some time,” he said.
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