IAF to buy 126 fighter aircraft

Indian Air Force (IAF) has decided to acquire a total of 126 multi-role fighter aircraft.

Disclosing this to reporters on the sidelines of the 54th International Congress of Aviation and Aerospace Medicine in Bangalore, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshall S P Tyagi said the Request For Proposals (RFP) to buy 126 fighter aircraft will be sent to various firms shortly.

The RFP to be issued by the Federal Ministry of Defence “will be out very shortly”, he said. The RFPs will be sent to Russian, American, French, Swedish and British companies, Tyagi said.

However, the Chief of Air Staff said the selection of the supplier will be a complex procedure. “We will evaluate the product and carry out technical and technological evaluation”, he said.

Tyagi said the IAF will only specify the type of aircraft and will not name a particular model. “There are several considerations like suitable price, technology and how quickly we can absorb that technology will also be considered”.

The Chief of Air Staff also said the process of weaponisation of indigenously development Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) had started. “The IAF had placed orders for 20 aircraft and process of weaponisation is on schedule. We are carrying out the integration of weapons on the LCA”, he said.

However, Tyagi refused to share with the media whether Indian firms or private firms had supplied the weapons, which are being integrated with the LCA. “The Ministry of Defence will take care of it”, he said.

Though Tyagi admitted that IAF was facing a shortage of pilots, he said the problem was not serious in nature as the rate of attrition was not increasing at present. He said the IAF was increasing the rate of induction of pilots.
The Chief of Air Staff also said the number of accidents involving IAF aircrafts had also come down considerably during the last 30 years. He said minimizing accidents was a continous process and the rate of accidents will be brought down further.