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India plans to acquire 350 aircraft in 20 years to strengthen Air Force

The Indian Air Force (IAF) is targeting to acquire about 350 aircraft in the next two decades, revealed Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria because India needs to develop asymmetric capabilities to strengthen the IAF’s total capacity keeping into consideration the challenges that the country faces from China.

“Looking at the northern neighbour, we have to have niche technologies which must be built in-house by our own industry for reasons of security,” the Chief of Air Staff was quoted in a report by the Press Trust of India (PTI).

However, the procurement of 350 aircraft in the next 20 years is still only a ‘rough projection’ and it is important to indigenously develop Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) project which has infused confidence in the domestic aerospace industry and the Air Chief Marshal expressed that the aerospace industry has great potential to grow in the future.

Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria particularly singled out and appreciated the personnel of the Air Force Station in Chandigarh for carrying out the heavy lift and air maintenance tasks and also conducting swift air mobilisation amidst the contingency in eastern Ladakh when visited the station recently.

It is quite clear that if India does acquire approximately 350 aircraft in the next 20 years, it would mean that top defence contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing and other top weapons manufacturers will look at this development very closely.

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