Record defence budget, but India hunts for old fighter jets

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
Bengaluru, February 22

A historic hike for defence in the Interim Budget notwithstanding, India has been looking at old friend Russia to bail it out of the impending fighter jet shortage faced by the Indian Air Force.

Two sets of needs have been projected. The first is a proposal seeking a new squadron (18 planes) of Sukhoi 30 MKI jets. India had ordered 272 Sukhoi jets and 250 of them have been delivered. The other is to get another 21 MiG-29 planes, which have been ‘mothballed’ (stored) at the MiG factory in Russia since the late 1980s, the days of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

Anatoly G Punchuk, deputy director of federal service for military technical cooperation of Russia, confirmed the Indian proposal: “For Sukhoi, Russia is making commercials (costs). On MiG-29, the India side has given a proposal.”

The IAF already has 61 MiG-29s and the Navy has 45 of another variant of the jet.

The Narendra Modi government has allocated Rs 3,18,931 crore ($44.74 billion) to the Ministry of Defence for the 2019-20 fiscal. Of this, Rs 39,347 crore is meant for the Air Force to procure aircraft. Overall, the MoD will be spending Rs 1,08,248 crore as capital expenses, which is 32 pc of the Union Government’s total capital expenditure.

Sources said the “hunt” for old jets was due to the impending IAF shortfall of jets and long gestation period for delivery of military equipment. By global standards, the first plane can be delivered only three years after placing of an order. A process was launched in April 2018 to procure 110 fighter jets. The first stage of the tender process has been completed and seven global companies are in the fray. The second stage is the announcement of operational requirements, followed by the request for a proposal and then placing of an order.  Separately, the IAF is looking to procure 36 grounded Jaguar fighter aircraft from France. The parts of some of these will be used as spares. Jaguars were inducted in 1980s and 1990s.

The IAF is now operating at its lowest strength of 31 fighter squadrons—some 16-18 planes in each. The Cabinet Committee on Security has mandated 42 squadrons for a simultaneous two-front war scenario with Pakistan and China. Even the addition of 36 Rafale and 123 Tejas—projected over the next eight years—would not help the IAF in stemming the downward slide. Over the next four to five years, nearly 110 planes of MiG-21 and MiG-27 series are slated to retire.

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