Amid the controversy over alleged irregularities in the Rafale deal, the Indian Air Force on Wednesday came out in support of the agreement with France to buy 36 of these fighter jets.
The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, defended the “emergency procurement” of 36 jets. He said such procurements were done on several occasions in the past, and sounded an alarm over the Air Force’s depleting combat edge in the eventuality of a two-front war.
“By providing the Rafale and S-400, the government is strengthening the IAF to counter the depleting force numbers,” he said at a seminar on IAF force structure organised by the Centre for Air Power Studies.
In 1983, when Pakistan inducted the first lot of F-16s, India got MiG-23MF air-defence interceptors from the Soviet Union, he said. Later, India got two squadrons each of Mirage-2000s and MiG-29s.
“It is pertinent to note that all those procurements are for two squadrons of aircraft and under the umbrella of an inter-governmental agreement (IGA),” he said.
On the IGA route for defence procurements, he said it facilitated faster procurement. “Whenever a critical operational necessity arises, it is the quickest means of achieving operational capability,” he said.
Asked if the present deal was cheaper than the earlier deal for 126 jets which fell through, he said it “would be answered by the Ministry of Defence”.
Last week, Air Marshal R. Nambiar, Deputy Chief of the IAF, said the present deal was 40% cheaper.
India and France signed a €7.87-billion IGA for 36 Rafale multi-role fighter jets in a fly-away condition during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Paris in September 2016.
While the Opposition parties, especially the Congress, say the deal is too expensive and allegedly favours the Anil Ambani group, the government has said that no procedure has been violated.
Air Marshal S.B.P. Sinha, currently chief of the IAF’s Central Command and Deputy Chief during negotiations for the 126 jets, presented a 10-point defence on why the deal was better than the earlier one in terms of pricing, configuration and better terms.
“Rafale was procured with best-in-class weapons only because it was procured through a government-to-government process,” he said.
Drawing attention to the depleting fighter strength of the IAF from the sanctioned strength of 42 squadrons to 31, the Air Chief said China and Pakistan were rapidly modernising their Air Forces and were not “sitting idle”.
“We have to match the force level of our adversaries so that we can fight simultaneously on two fronts … Even when we do have 42 squadrons, we will be below the combined numbers of two of our regional adversaries,” he said.
Congress comment
Responding to the IAF chief’s comments on Rafale, the Congress said it was “disgusting and deplorable” that the government had to put up the Air Force chief to defend it.
“Where is the famous ‘56-inch’? It has not been our convention to drag the armed forces into politics. And we in the Congress will not engage with the Air Force chief whom we hold in great esteem,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.
