India needs to partner with other countries to get new weapons, says IAF chief A P Singh

New Delhi: With an Indian Air Force (IAF) proposal to buy 114 Rafale fighter aircraft from France under the government’s active consideration, Air Chief Marshal A P Singh on Wednesday (January 21) said India “needs to join hands with other countries” to get new “products, platforms and weapons in near future.”

Such a strategic partnership, he said, was needed to catch up with the next generation technologies while continuing with indigenous designing and developments.

“This is the right time to get into a strategic partnership to develop next generation weapons and platforms; something in the lines of the vision that we have taken for engines for future aircraft,” Air Chief Marshal said at a seminar here.

The IAF chief spoke at a time when the Defence Ministry has been negotiating with the French government to buy six squadrons of Rafale combat jets from Dassault Aviation in a government to government deal.

While some of the aircraft are to be flown to India, others will be manufactured locally in partnership with the Indian industry.

On the increasing military use of unmanned aerial vehicles, Air Marshal Singh said the roles of drones were transitioning from simple secondary use as a surveillance tool to more complex unmanned aerial combat vehicles.

“The relevance of drones is increasing day by day, particularly the swarm drones, UCAV and counter drone systems. Our focus should remain in acquiring such capabilities as early as possible,” he said.

Addressing the 22nd Subroto Mukerjee seminar, he said, “What is happening around the world and what has happened in India is that air power has delivered what is required to be delivered. Air power becomes very important and we should focus our attention on this part of the military if we want a force to reckon with.”

“Whether it is getting people out of conflict zones, like we did it in Sudan or whether it is giving a blow to the terrorist infrastructure and their perpetrators or whether it is attacking multiple bases in Pakistan in a matter of few hours to send a signal that enough is enough and bring them to their knees, it was air power that did the trick and that has to be remembered,” said Singh .