BENGALURU: Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa today said “No Nation can afford to become a great power without its indigenous capability.”
“IAF fully supports indigenisation, but it has to be a step-by-step approach and critical items required have to be imported if need be. The Government’s push towards defence manufacturing in the private sector is a welcome step.
This will compete with the public sector like it happened in telecom and create an eco-system for manufacturing in the aerospace sector the kind of fillip the automobile industry got with the advent of the Maruti car,” he added.
Delivering Air Chief Marshal L M Katre Memorial Lecture here, Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said that IAF is committed to both joint operations and indigenisation.
“All future conventional wars are invariably decided in the air. If you loose the air battle there is no way you can succeed on the ground or over the sea against a conventional enemy. Air is one dimension that extends over both land and sea.
Rome built roads to become a land power and subsequently Britannia ruled the waves through its sea power. But post the Second World War, the pre-eminence of air power against a conventional enemy has been firmly established,” he added.
Stating that both land and naval forces need air power to achieve their military objectives, Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said that “Air Force does not require direct support of either of the two services. IAF is a multi sector force and new aircraft like Rafale are omnirole in their capability.
You cannot tie this down to any one sector, unless you are limited by geography, wherein assets in a geographical area cannot be applied in another akin to the US Theater Commands.”
(AGENCIES)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
