{"id":33894,"date":"2018-10-30T14:49:09","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T09:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=33894"},"modified":"2018-10-30T14:49:09","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T09:19:09","slug":"beyond-the-news-tejas-and-beyond-how-short-the-iaf-is-of-fighters-what-options-it-has-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/beyond-the-news-tejas-and-beyond-how-short-the-iaf-is-of-fighters-what-options-it-has-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the News- Tejas and beyond: How short the IAF is of fighters, what options it has now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/beyond-the-news-tejas-and-beyond-how-short-the-iaf-is-of-fighters-what-options-it-has-now-4946876\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beyond the News- Tejas and beyond: How short the IAF is of fighters, what options it has now<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IAF is well short of the strength required to face up to a two-front threat.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be prepared for a two-front collusive threat, from China and Pakistan, is the government\u2019s mandate for the IAF.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the present scenario?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Air Force is authorised 42 squadrons of fighter aircraft, which is the bare minimum it needs to dominate a two-front conflict. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each squadron of the IAF has 18 aircraft; this number that can sometimes be a little higher depending on the number of trainers in the squadron.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has developed its indigenous single-engine Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The five LCA Tejas supplied to the IAF by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) are part of a contract for 40 aircraft, 20 in Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) configuration, and 20 in the Final Operational Clearance (FOC) configuration.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the awaiting deals?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Air Force is also committed to buying another 83 LCA Tejas<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These fighters will be the improved Mark-1A version, which is still in the design stage.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The IAF is getting 36 French Rafale, besides the balance Russian Sukhoi Su30MKI fighters.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the alternatives?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The option is to buy some other foreign single-engine fighter, and this is the route the IAF is currently exploring.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The American F-16 and Swedish Gripen are in contention for the supply of 114 fighters, 18 of which will come in flyaway condition, and the rest will be made in India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is also developing the next generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), and the IAF expects to have its first squadron in service by 2032.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the way ahead?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India must develop and promote its indigenous defence industry and the IAF must remain committed to LCA Tejas, the nation\u2019s security is paramount.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A right balance needs to be found a mix of LCA Tejas Mark-1 and Mark-2, AMCA, and some foreign fighter aircraft.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A decision must be made before the IAF\u2019s fleet has depleted to critical levels, and India is forced to make emergency imports at very high costs.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beyond the News- Tejas and beyond: How short the IAF is of fighters, what options it has now Context IAF is well short of the strength required to face up to a two-front threat. To be prepared for a two-front collusive threat, from China and Pakistan, is the government\u2019s mandate for the IAF. What is&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/beyond-the-news-tejas-and-beyond-how-short-the-iaf-is-of-fighters-what-options-it-has-now\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Beyond the News- Tejas and beyond: How short the IAF is of fighters, what options it has now<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704889947},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}