Indian Air Force Chief Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh said on Saturday that the continuing delay in inducting Tejas fighter jets has affected the force’s ability to meet security challenges.
Indian Air Force Day will be celebrated on October 8. As part of this, Air Marshal A.P. Singh, responding to various questions at a press conference held on Saturday, said, “Over the next few years, the Air Force needs to induct 36 to 40 fighter jets every year.
The country’s security apparatus will be further strengthened once the indigenously produced Tejas Mark-1A and the Rafale fighter aircraft manufactured in France under the Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft project (MRFA) are inducted into the Air Force.
I hope the MRFA agreement between India and France will be signed in the current financial year. However, the delay in delivering the Tejas fighter aircraft to the Air Force is causing significant harm.
Under the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft project (AMCA), the Tejas Mark 2 fighter jet will also be procured. However, if there is a delay in the delivery of domestically produced fighter jets to the Air Force, the situation may arise where fighter jets have to be imported from abroad.
As part of this, Russia has said it will supply Su-57 fighter jets. A final decision on this has not yet been made.
The government announced as early as 2019 that it would establish an integrated tri-service division to enable the Indian Air Force, the Indian Army, and the Indian Navy to operate under a single joint command. Discussions on this intensified during Operation Sindoor. “The government will take the decisions related to this,” he said.
Continued delay: The number of fighter aircraft in the Indian Air Force has fallen from 42 to 29.
Following this, in order to increase the number of fighter aircraft, the Central government in February 2021 entered into a Rs. 48,000 crore agreement with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to procure 83 Tejas Mk-1A fighter jets for the Indian Air Force. Accordingly, the first batch of Tejas Mk-1A fighter jets was scheduled to be delivered in March 2024. However, so far not a single aircraft has been handed over to the Air Force.
Meanwhile, the Central government signed another agreement worth Rs. 62,370 crore with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to procure 97 light Tejas Mk-1A fighter jets.
In this context, it is noteworthy that the central government approved the contract to procure 114 Rafale fighter jets from France in February this year.
