India has fallen behind China on defense technology and equipment and needs to “catch up,” says India’s new Air Force chief.
Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh made the remarks at a press briefing in New Delhi on Friday, days after taking up the role and ahead of the 92nd anniversary of the air force on Tuesday this week. Singh pointed to a delayed order of supersonic fighter jets being built by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, saying none of the 83 Tejas Mark-1A combat aircraft that were promised this year had been delivered.
“I am very confident that as far as the human angle is concerned – as far as our people behind the machines are concerned – we are way ahead of [China],” Singh was quoted as saying.
“We were ahead of [China] in technology some time back, but we have lagged and need to catch up,” he said.
“As far as production rates are concerned, we are way behind. We need to catch up with that. And that will happen over time. It cannot happen overnight.”
India and China have a long-running dispute over their under-marketed 3,488km border, known as the Line of Actual Control. Tensions worsened after a clash in the Himalayan border area in 2020, in which at least 20 Indian and four Chinese troops were killed – the first deadly skirmish between the two sides in at least 45 years.
Meanwhile, China has been rapidly modernizing its air force fleet. That includes the J-20 fifth-generation fighter jet with stealth and supersonic cruise capabilities. According to Air and Space Forces Magazine, China currently produces more than 100 J-20s every year, solely for domestic use. China’s air force is said to have more than 300 J-20s in service, with recent reports that some of the fighter jets have been deployed near the border with India, in Tibet and Xinjiang.
Testifying before Congress in March, the former head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral John Aquilino, said China could soon have the world’s largest air force due to its modernization efforts.
India has also been trying to modernize its air force but, despite efforts to become more self-reliant, it remains heavily dependent on imported weapons and equipment. It currently has a fleet of 31 fighter jet squadrons, but the target is 42 – a number that could be revised up given the military’s shift in focus from Pakistan to China, Indian news magazine The Week reported on Friday, citing an anonymous senior air force official.
Singh’s remarks follow a number of air force incidents in recent months. In September, a Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jet crashed in Rajasthan during a routine night training mission. Three months earlier, a Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter jet went down in Maharashtra. In both incidents, the pilots managed to eject safely. In April, a remotely piloted aircraft crashed during a training sortie in Rajasthan, and the previous month, a Tejas light combat aircraft crashed in a student hostel compound in the same state – the pilot also ejected safely.
