Indian Air Force Chief RKS Bhadauria revealed that the Indian Air Force was planning to procure 450 fighter aircraft for deployment on the northern and western frontiers of the country over the period of a few years. The Air Force Chief spoke about the list of aircraft that the Air Force was planning to induct which included 36 Rafales, 114 Multirole Fighter Aircraft, 100 Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and over 200 variants of the Light Combat Aircraft.
While speaking to news agency ANI, Bhadauria added that the induction of these fighters would take place over a period of the next 35 years. This comes a few months after the Indian Air Force faced a shortage of around 10 squadrons of Combat Aircraft in view of phasing out of the MiG-21 and MiG-27 fighters planes. In the next 15 years, 83 LCAs are Indian Air Force primary focus, after that LCA Mark 2 will come in, that makes it near 200 of LCA class. In the trainer aircraft segment, we are looking at 70 HTT-40 as a support aircraft to the Pilatus fleet.
Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria has succeeded Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa to become the 26th chief of the Indian Air Force. BS Dhanoa retired on September 30 2019, after 41 years of stellar service. He was the chief of the IAF during the Balakot airstrikes. The Apache choppers received a water cannon salute, before induction at the Pathankot Air Base. This will be its first fleet of attack choppers. By 2020, the IAF will operate a fleet of 22 Apaches.
