Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, an accomplished fighter pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flying experience, on Monday assumed charge as new chief of the Indian Air Force, succeeding incumbent Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari. Air Chief Marshal Singh was serving as Vice Chief of the Air Force in his previous assignment.

Sources within the force said the top priority for the chief will be to strengthen fighting capability of the IAF.

“The fighter squadron strength of the IAF stands at 30 as of now which includes two of the MiG 21 Bisons squadrons that will be phased out next year. This means that the numbers will come down further. This coupled with the delay in delivery of the Tejas MK1A is a serious headache for IAF planners,” a source said.

The new chief will take a call on the multirole fighter aircraft (MRFA) deal that has been pending for years under which 114 new combat aircraft are to be procured.

In the original plan, the MRFA was to run in tandem with the Tejas programme. However, the MRFA programme is still awaiting a green signal from the government before the IAF actually moves the file to the defence ministry. 

“As far as the IAF is concerned, the big worry is the fighter strength. Both China and Pakistan are modernising their air force with fast induction of 4.5 and 5th generation fighter aircraft. They are already outgunning us in terms of numbers and the capabilities,” a second source said. 

The delivery of the light combat aircraft MK1A has been delayed because of engine supply issues by American firm GE and a key component of the aircraft, the engine charge amplifier meant to be imported from Denmark, has been put on an export blacklist by it.

While the IAF had ordered 83 MK1A in 2021, plans are already underway to procure 97 more.

Along with this, the IAF plans to procure about 120 Tejas MK2 fighters which are still under development.

Concerned by the delay in delivery, which was to begin from March this year, the former IAF chief proposed a public private partnership (PPP) model to set up more production lines for Tejas, as the force gets set to induct nearly 300 variants of the indigenous fighters over the next decade and half.

The new IAF chief is cognisant of the dangers that his force is facing and had in July said that atmanirbharta (self reliance) cannot come at the cost of national defence as the capability gap between India and her adversaries were growing continuously.

ACM Singh is a test pilot and led the MiG-29 Upgrade Project Management Team in Moscow, Russia. He was also the Project Director (flight test) at National Flight Test Centre and was tasked with flight testing of Tejas.

Explaining other areas of priority, sources said the IAF would be looking at inducting more beyond visual-range missiles, and long-range air-to-surface strike capabilities, larger numbers of indigenous attack helicopters, and airborne early warning and control systems.

 “All the above programmes are already in motion and the pace will have to be sped up. The real worry is that of the fighter aircraft,” a third source said.

 Incidentally, some IAF bases are currently without the required fighter strength, and hence, their area of responsibility has been increased to ensure constant vigil.

(Edited by Tikli Basu)