*New Delhi:* Indian Air Force Chief admits PAF Fighter jets air superiorityagainst IAF Su 30 and Mirage 2000 on February 27, 2019.
When Pakistan launched Operation Swift Retort, their F16s were armed withthe Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile — AMRAAM — which has highercapability than that of the R-77 used by the Su 30 MKI and the MICA used bythe Mirages.
This meant that while Pakistan could hit Indian aircraft in air from BVR,the Sukhois and the Mirages could not.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is looking at regaining its edge over itsPakistani counterpart in air-to-air missile capabilities that was “allowedto slip” amid a “struggle” to acquire them in a process that has lasted 15years, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhaduria said Friday.
In a frank conversation on the takeaways from the Balakot air strike andthe subsequent dogfight on 27 February 2019, the IAF chief said the forceis not just depending on the Rafale aircraft and its weapons to regain theedge but also on other missiles, including indigenous ones.
He was speaking at a seminar organised by the Centre for Air Power Studies.
The 36 Rafale fighterslinkthatIndia will operate come with state-of-the-art radars and unmatched BVRcapabilities. They will also be armed with the Meteor air-to-air missilesthat have a range of 150 km. This means that a Rafale can take out an enemyaircraft 150 km away, in effect without even crossing Indian airspace.
At present, neither Pakistan nor India have missiles to counter the Meteor,which tilts the scale in India’s favour.
Read Top Stories
“We had the edge over the Pakistan Air Force in terms of Beyond VisualRange Missile capability at the time of Kargil. We allowed that to slip andthereafter it took a decade-and-a-half of struggle with the acquisitionprocess to be able to get better capability,” Bhaduria said.
He added that the BVR capability will soon materialise with the inductionof the Rafale. The first four Rafales will land in India in May.
The IAF chief underlined that in air engagement, especially in adeeply-contested area, it is important to have an edge in weapons.
“Once we retain this edge, it is important that we don’t allow it to slip,”he said.
The IAF chief further said that the force cannot depend on the Meteor aloneto meet the requirements and so is looking at other systems too.
The trials for the indigenous air-to-air missile Astra has beensuccessfully completed and is now being inducted. The plan is to increasethe range further, sources said.
