In 2016, Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa sounded a warning about the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) steadily depleting fighter squadron strength. The IAF has long maintained that a minimum of 42 fighter squadrons is essential to effectively engage both of India’s primary adversaries, China and Pakistan, simultaneously. Interestingly, the following year, Dhanoa reassured that the IAF had formulated a “Plan B” to counter both fronts even with reduced operational strength.
It appears India is in a perpetual search for the acquisition of fighter aircraft – an important arsenal for the Indian Air Force (IAF), which is woefully short of its sanctioned strength (39.5 squadrons). Although calculations available in public domain vary – ranging from sanctioned 39.5 to ambitious 42 / 46 squadrons for the IAF to maintain its combat edge – slightly over 30 current squadrons with fast depleting MiG fleet put the IAF in a difficult spot, despite braggart assertions from highest-level military commanders about India’s growing military aerospace prowess.
The US Congress has recently taken a decision that inadvertently worked in favour of India. In an intrepid foreign policy decision, Congress came down heavily on the offer made by the Obama administration to Pakistan for the sale of the state-of-art, all-weather, and multi-role fighter defence equipment and refused to utilise American taxpayers’ money to fund the eight fighter jets to Pakistan.
On 27 May 2009, the Indian Air Force inducted one of the biggest state-of-the-art platforms in its fleet capable of giving advance warning of an aerial threat. The platform is also capable of gathering electronics and signal intelligence. This is India’s first Airborne Warning and Control System, commonly known as AWACS. Two more such aerial platforms are in queue to be inducted by 2012.