Indian Air Force to Modernize Airbases Across the Country
Dated 5/10/2008
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The Indian Air Force (IAF) has embarked on a plan to modernise its major air bases, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Homi Major said here on Friday. The IAF had also installed surveillance devices to make air bases more secure in the wake of terrorist incidents and the creeping urbanisation around their peripheries.
The IAF had floated a global tender to modernise 39 airfields to a standard that would take every type of aircraft. "The ultimate aim is that all the bases can handle every single type of aircraft," he said at a press conference before Air Force Day on October 8.
The IAF was filling low-level gaps in the southern peninsula with the induction of more radars and wanted to jointly manage air space with the civil aviation sector all over the country to enhance domain awareness. The IAF chief said the Tezpur air base would be the first in the eastern region to host the potent Sukhoi-30 MKI fighters. "The Prime Minister, during his visit to the north-east recently, announced development works, including better roads, advanced landing grounds, etc. In the IAF, we have brought forward some programmes to beef up the infrastructure in the north-east."
Having resolved the spares issue, the IAF wants Hindustan Aeronautical Limited to produce around 22 to 23 aircraft annually to speed up their deployment as against the 15 it made this year.
Another new area of focus was the modernisation of its transport fleet. The nearly 100 AN-32 medium transporters were being upgraded but would be finally replaced with the medium transport aircraft that would be jointly designed and produced by India and Russia. The IAF would also replace the heavy transporter IL-76 with a very heavy transport aircraft. "We are working out the air staff qualitative requirements and wish to issue the request for information very soon. We are also in the process of upgrading the Dorniers with better avionics and are considering the induction of the indigenously developed light category Saras aircraft," he said.
The IAF was planning to buy six more air-to-air refuellers and the Defence Ministry was engaged in price negotiations with makers of IL-78 and Airbus-330. The IAF already has half a dozen refuellers which has vastly enhanced the range of its frontline fighters. The IAF will soon finalise the purchase of 80 Mi-17s, 125 light utility helicopters to replace the Cheetah and Chetak fleet, eight VVIP helicopters and four of its cargo version. It would also induct 38 indigenous Dhruv helicopters and 16 of its armed versions with a glass cockpit and new engines. Negotiations with Russia for designing and developing a fifth-generation fighter aircraft are being held on job share and costing. Asked about plans to purchase precision guided missiles, the air chief said, "We are looking at this all the time. The need to integrate missiles with the aircraft is the challenge. You don’t just go to the market, buy a missile and put it on the plane."
On service chiefs approaching the Prime Minister on the pay issue, he said, “I, as the Chief of Air Staff, and the other two service chiefs, after going through the pay panel report, had put up a few issues which we wanted the Government to reconsider.”
