NEW DELHI – IAF chief Birender Singh Dhanoa has raised concerns overincreasing deployment of Chinese aircraft in the Tibet Autonomous Regionand also called the JF-17 fighter jets of Pakistan, the aircraft of thepresent. Air Marshal Dhanoa said that India was poised with the growingthreats from Pakistan and China, the two nuclear-armed states in theneighbourhood.
He said that despite Chinese facing geographical conditions thatunfavourable for their Air Force, they had emerged as the second mostpowerful air power in the world.
He pointed out that the Chinese have increased air deployment of Sukhoi-27and J-10 fighter jets in the Tibet Autonomous Region as compared to otherregions. However, he maintained that the two Air Forces were closelyinteracting each other and that the Indian Air Force had not violated anyairspace during the Gaganshakti 2018.
Speaking of Pakistan, during his address on the Role of the Indian AirForce in Changing Security Environment at Vivekananda InternationalFoundation, New Delhi, he admitted that JF 17 is the aircraft of thepresent.
Air Marshal Dhanao also said that the Indian deterrence in thesub-conventional domain was not working and emphasised for the need tobuild on our existing capabilities to ensure we tackle Pakistan moreeffectively.
Air Marshal Dhanoa also termed Pakistan’s fighter jet JF-17 as the aircraftof the present. JF-17 Thunder as it is called in Pakistan or FC-1 Xiaolongas called in China is a single engine, lightweight multi-role combataircraft developed and built by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex.
Quoting one of the international defence journals he said that JF-17remains to be the aircraft of today as Pakistan had fielded more squadronsthan India. In order to create a cohesive defence strategy, Air MarshalDhanoa said that it was imperative to create asymmetric defence system inland, water and air. In an attempt to create such a strategy, the defenceforces would require more budget. Since India is lacking the budget inmodernising its forces, he envisaged a strategy wherein the cost ofretaliation was very high.
Being quizzed on which is a better fighter jet aircraft, he said that itwould all depend on how India chose to equip itself. He also asserted thatthe Indian Air Force was successful in carrying out Gaganshakti 2018, thelargest ever all-encompassing real-time combat ready exercise. He also saidthat Tejas had performed really well during the operations that comparingTejas to other aircraft was not valid.
“Each fighter jets have different capabilities and India needs to have allkinds of aircraft. One must have fighter jets that have high end, mediumend and also low-end capabilities”, he added.