With nearly 600 combat aircraft, the Indian Air Force is today the fifth largest air force in the world, behind the US Air Force, the Chinese Air Force, the US Navy and the Russian Air Force.
Since India does not have, strictly speaking, ambitions in terms of force projection, and is not engaged in binding alliances, one might think that such a format would prove sufficient to ensure the defense of the country and its borders.
However, since the withdrawal of the Mig-27s in 2019, and then the last Mig-21s this year, the IAF has continued to demand more fighter jets, arguing that the current 31 fighter squadrons are insufficient to effectively carry out its missions, and that 42 would be needed for this.
A few days ago, the new Chief of Staff of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, even specified, shortly after taking command, that the target of 42 fighter squadrons, should probably be revised upwards, given the evolution of threats.
Can we today rationally assess the exact needs of the IAF in terms of combat aircraft and fighter squadrons? Which models of aircraft would best meet New Delhi's needs? And if this deficit is proven, does it also affect other resources of the Indian Air Force?
In this section:
Indian Air Force today fields world's 5th fighter fleet
With 140.000 active personnel and as many reservists, the Indian Air Force is one of the largest air forces on the planet. It currently operates just under 2000 aircraft, including 600 combat aircraft.
India's main combat aircraft, is the Su-30MKI, a Russian-designed heavy multi-role fighter, acquired by New Delhi in 272 in 2000 units, and delivered from 2004. Mainly assembled in India by HAL, these aircraft carry many modern Indian and Western systems, weapons and equipment.
The second fleet, in number, consists of 115 SEPECAT Jaguar, a Franco-British attack aircraft, sold to New Delhi by London at the end of the 70s. Now obsolete, it is due to be withdrawn from service soon to be replaced, in particular, by the winner of the MRCA 2 competition.
The IAF also operates around sixty MIG-29s, including twelve in the modernized UPG version, and around forty MIG-21s, due to be withdrawn from service by 2025.
Although it entered service in the mid-80s, the forty or so Mirage 2000s still in service, plus ten two-seater trainers, continue to play an important role in the country's air defense. Like the Greek M2000-5s, the Indian aircraft carry the RDY radar, and have air-to-ground capabilities, in addition to the -5's interception capabilities, with its MICA missiles.
The excellent performance of the Mirage 2000s within the IAF, including in combat, during the 1999 Kargil War, was certainly a major argument that led New Delhi to order 36 aircraft. Rafale French, in 2016, after the failure of the MMRCA program, which was nevertheless won by the device.
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The best solution for India would be to order a hundred Rafale4.2 but built in India, Dassault has already built with its local partner a maintenance center which could evolve into an assembly center
The relaunch of an evaluation procedure for the MRCA contract risks delaying this modernization process. It's quite strange...
Hello,
I was surprised to read that India has a land border with Afghanistan. After checking, for me, these 2 countries do not have common borders.
For yourself
In fact, for India, this is the case, because New Delhi considers that Kashmir and Jammu are, as a whole, Indian provinces, and that Pakistani Kashmir therefore belongs to it. The latter has a 160 km border with Afghanistan. From the Indian point of view, this is therefore the case. However, here, we are studying the Indian point of view. I have added the explanation in the text.
Hello. Indeed, I had not taken this aspect into account.
Good continuation