Don't Have First 40 Tejas Aircraft While China Testing Stealth Fighters: IAF Chief Expresses Concern

New Delhi: Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh has expressed concern over India’s defence capabilities saying that the service has yet not received the delivery of 40 Tejas aircrafts ordered in 2009-2010 while their northern and western adversaries — Pakistan and China — are increasing their air forces at a veery rapid pace.

Addressing the 21st Subroto Mukherjee Seminar on ‘Aatmanirbharta in Aerospace Sector’ in New Delhi, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said that if if we aspire to be a country of reckoning in the world, "aerospace sector" will be a major contributor towards that.

“We need to increase our capacity. Again, when do we need the capacity? So we need to have that capacity. We need to be flexible in that. So Production agencies have to invest in their advanced manufacturing processes so that the speed can increase upskilling their manpower and whatever they do, the scale of production has to go up,” Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said.

Citing delay in Tejas delivery, IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal wants private players entry in defence production    

"In Tejas just started inducting in 2016. Actually, we should go back to 1984 when we conceived that aircraft. First aircraft flew in 2001, 17 years. Then the induction started another 15 years later, in 2016. Today we are in 2024. I do not have the 1st 40 aircraft also, so this is the production capability. We need to do something and I am very convinced that we need to get some private players in. We need to have competition. We need to have multiple sources available so that people are wary of losing their, you know, orders, that we may not get the next order. Otherwise, things will not change," Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said.

The Air Chief Marshal said that they have concerns from our northern and western adversaries.

"As far as defence is concerned, we have concerns from our northern and western adversaries. Both of them are increasing their forces at a rapid pace. As far as China is concerned, it is not just numbers. The technology is also growing at a rapid pace. We just saw the flight of the latest new generation aircraft that they have pulled out.. the stealth fighter," the Air Chief Marshal said.

He said, “When the chips are down, your friends may also not come to you. The only way you can survive is by doing things which can help you survive. We have heard that even gods help those who help themselves. We need to do things ourselves.”

He further said that in the IAF they need to innovate and come up with new ideas.

"I am not saying that who has been failing. I think all of us have been failing in not being able to take us to that self-reliant state where we should have been today. We in uniform are no less," Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said.

With inputs from ANI