NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Wednesday said the Rafale fighter would prove to be a “game changer” in air combat capabilities in the region because it could outgun any combat jet that China or Pakistan can deploy against India, while also letting loose a few missiles at defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) for its continuing production delays in several aircraft programmes.
The NDA government took “a very bold step” in inking the Rs 59,000 crore contract for 36 Rafales with France in September 2016 “to offset the expanding capabilities of our adversaries”, said Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa, addressing a press conference ahead of IAF’s 86th anniversary on October 8.
Refusing to get into the “politics” of the ongoing slugfest between BJP and Congress on the Rafale deal, ACM Dhanoa said the French fighter contract and the impending Rs 39,000 crore deal for five Russian S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems would go a long way in plugging the gaps in IAF’s combat capabilities.
IAF is down to just 31 fighter squadrons (16-18 jets in each) when at least 42 are required to tackle the two-front contingency with China and Pakistan. “Rafales (to be inducted in 2019-2022) and S-400s are like booster doses for a depleting IAF,” said ACM Dhanoa.
But the Congress has alleged the Rafale deal was vastly overpriced, violated the Defence Procurement Procedure, had no transfer of technology, and cold-shouldered HAL to favour the Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Defence as the main “offsets partner” of fighter-manufacturer Dassault Aviation.
The NDA government, in turn, maintains it secured a “better deal” in terms of price, capability, equipment, delivery and maintenance than the one “notionally being negotiated” by the previous UPA regime for 126 Rafale jets. Under this scrapped MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project, the first 18 fighters were to come in “a flyaway condition” with the rest being licensed produced by HAL.
Though the IAF chief praised HAL for “meeting production targets in the last one fiscal”, he listed out the delays in delivery schedules of different programmes run by HAL. The licensed production of Sukhoi-30MKIs is running three years behind schedule, as was the Jaguar Darin-3 upgrade (six years), Indigenous Tejas fighter (five years), Mirage-2000 upgrade (two years) and HTT-40 trainer aircraft (five years), he said.
There were three options after the long-pending MMRCA got stuck in an “impasse” over technology transfer and guarantee issues between Dassault and HAL. “One, continue to wait, hoping for a solution. Two, start the MMRCA process afresh, losing several years in the process. Or three, make an emergency purchase (of two squadrons or 36 jets) as a critical operational necessity, as the government did,” said ACM Dhanoa.
“HAL would have been in the picture if we were buying a larger number of jets with transfer of technology and licensed production…IAF and the government have nothing to do with the selection of the offsets partners (Reliance) by the original equipment manufacturer (Dassault),” he added.
