Chief of the Indian Airforce, RKS Bhadauria, said in an interview on Monday that the Indian Air Force was planning to acquire 450 fighter aircrafts over the next 35 years. These crafts will be deployed on the Northern and Western frontiers of the country.
"In the next 15 years, 83 LCAs are our primary focus, after that LCA Mark 2 will come in we a re looking at close to 100 of those, that makes it near 200 of LCA class," said Bhadauria in his interview with ANI.
This plan includes 36 Rafales, 114 Multirile Fighter Aircraft, 100 Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and over 200 variants of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).
"AMCA, we are looking at six swuadrons, so that puts it close to 100 [aircrafts]. So, in the inigenous domain areas which are already frozen in terms of our requirement, in terms of our understanding with DRDO in the fighter [segment]," he said.
Regarding trainer aircrafts, Bhadauria said that they were cconsidering 70 HTT-40 as a support aircraft to the Pilatus fleet; eventually this would mean 370 odd indigenous aircrafts.
"It is now the perfect time for industries to respond and come up with solutions which are rapidly put in place and come up to the challenge of delivering these aircrafts," noted Bhadauria.
The Chief of Air Forces said that the prject of aquiring 144 multirole fighter aircaft was "in the middle-weight" and that it would be dealt with in the Make in India region, "with an increase in FDI, with support to the private sector."
