From greater number of forcemultipliers to UAVs and UCAVs et al, the IAF has indeed worked out its modernisation plans well. What is required to be seen now is that it gets the necessary support from the powers that be, and in a timely manner.

Without getting into the controversy on the percentages with regard to the amount of IAF equipment having become obsolete, one statement of the CAS during the IAF’s 78th anniversary conference is worth noting when he spoke words to the effect that the IAF was striving to bring down obsolescence levels to around 20 per cent by 2014-15. Describing the security scenario in India’s neighbourhood as a “volcano” which could erupt anytime and exhorting the air warriors to be prepared to tackle any eventuality, and while putting up a brave front during his interaction with the media by stating that in spite of shortcomings, the IAF was capable of handling threats, it is clear that the IAF leadership is deeply concerned with the widespread obsolescence of its equipment and the resulting adverse effect it has on its operational capability.

But why has the IAF allowed this level of obsolescence to creep into its inventories? One would be hard put to single out one particular determining factor which might have led to such large-scale obsolescence in the IAF. More accurately, multiple reasons ranging from the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s on whom the Indian armed forces were heavily dependent for continued supply of military hardware and the dire financial straits in which India found itself at about the same time might have had a cascading effect leading to obsolescence in the later years. However, even if the financial resources and alternate sources of defence equipment were made available, it is felt in some quarters that the Bofors scandal which had erupted at about the same time, and later Tehelka, so paralysed the politico-bureaucratic regime that none of the acquisition/modernisation plans of the armed forces were allowed to be extricated from the cold storage of inaction they had been consigned to.

Whatever the reasons, the stark reality is that India’s armed forces started to feel the heat of obsolescence and reduced inventories by the turn of the century. For example, the IAF in the new millennium witnessed a very quick and alarming decline in its jet fighter squadrons, losing almost a quarter of its fighter force in a few years. Hasty decisions to withdraw some fleets based purely on flight safety and maintenance support concerns further accelerated the process of decline.

While the fighter force in the IAF may have experienced the worst downslide, other fleets and systems too have not been left unscathed from the menace of obsolescence or worse. The most alarming decline has been in the field of air defence but other support and infrastructural systems have also been affected in varying degrees. But the good news is that riding on the financial support of an economically resurgent India and backed by its sound and far-sighted plans, the IAF is slowly coming out of the quagmire of obsolescence. The slim ray of hope is turning into an ever brightening dawn beckoning the IAF to establish itself on a purposeful path studded with new acquisitions and modernisation/upgradations. So, how is the IAF combating the scourge of obsolescence?

First, as far as its fighter force is concerned, the IAF is trying hard to come out of a deep well of decline by inducting new fighter aircraft into its inventory. Spearheading the new inductions, are the twin-engine Su-30 MKI state-ofthe-art air dominance fighters more than hundred of which have already been inducted into squadron service in the three operational commands of the IAF. With six squadrons of these aircraft operative, two each at Pune in South Western Air Command (SWAC), Bareilly in Central Air Command (CAC) and Tezpur in Eastern Air Command (EAC), the IAF has been able to effectively arrest any further downslide in the numbers of its fighter force which had been hovering around 30 squadrons down from the earlier level of 39 ½. Even Western Air Command (WAC) is gearing up to accommodate the next two squadrons at its frontline base at Halwara in Punjab. With these inductions, the IAF would be able to reverse the trend and start building up on its squadron strength once again. The total IAF order for the Su-30 MKIs currently stands at 270 aircraft with their production continuing at the HAL factory at Nasik. The IAF could equip close to 12 squadrons with these aircraft when the order is complete. That would be a formidable fleet and has the potential to be built upon further.