New Delhi: Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh Thursday flagged serious concerns over inordinate delays in various defence acquisition projects and failure to stick to delivery schedules for supply of key platforms even as he hailed Operation Sindoor as a ‘national victory’.
In his first public comments following the four-day military clashes between India and Pakistan, the Air Chief Marshal said that “not a single project” has been completed on time and that the armed forces have refrained from calling “black sheep as black sheep”.
In his remarks at the CII Business Summit, he, however, did not provide specific details of the projects or made a reference of the period since when delays have been impacting the Indian Air Force (IAF).
The IAF chief also referred to dialogues from Salman Khan-starrer movie ‘Wanted’: “Ek baar jo humne commit kiya hai, fir mai apne aap ki bhi nahi sunta (Once we commit to something, then I don’t even to listen to myself after that), to emphasise that commitments made to the armed forces on defence projects have to be adhered to.
Air Chief Marshal Singh, known for his plain speaking, suggested that the IAF was largely looking “outward” for its procurement over around a decade back but that approached changes and it started looking inward for opportunities within India after a “rap on our knuckle”.
He emphasised that the current geopolitical situation has “made us realise that Atmanirbharta (self-reliance) is the only solution”.
The Chief of Air Staff said the Operation Sindoor has given the Indian armed forces a “clear idea” of where “we are headed and what we need in the future”.
Lauding the armed forces as well as all agencies concerned for the success of Operation Sindoor, Air Chief Marshal Singh said: “We were taking the path of truth, I think, God was with us also in this.” Under Operation Sindoor, the IAF played the leading role in destroying nine terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir early on May 7 under Operation Sindoor, in response to the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack.
All subsequent retaliations to Pakistani offensives were carried out under this operation.
In his address, the IAF chief lamented the delays in implementation of defence projects. The IAF has been upset over huge delays by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd in the delivery of Tejas light combat jets.
“Timelines is a big issue; that is where the ‘vachan’ (commitment) part comes in. Once a timeline is given.. not a single project that I can think of, has been completed on time,” he said.
“So, this is something where we have to look in, why should we promise something which cannot be achieved.” “While signing the contract itself, sometimes, we are sure that it is not going to come up. But, we just sign the contract and see what can be done after that. Obviously, then the process gets vitiated,” he said.
On Operation Sindoor, Air Chief Marshal Singh said “this war was won by a whole-of-nation approach”, and the same approach needs to continue while talking about empowering the defence forces.
“Actually, it is not just a whole-of-nation approach, we have to be in a whole-of-nation mission mode, if I can call it, to make sure that we accelerate and produce results,” he said, in an apparent reference to military modernisation.
Air Chief Marshal Singh began his address by terming the Operation Sindoor a “national victory”.
“We were taking the path of truth, I think, God was with us also in this,” he said.
“I am sure, every Indian contributed towards this victory. Like it has been said again and again that this was an operation which was executed in a very professional manner by everybody — all the agencies, all the forces, we all came together…and when truth is with you, then everything happens on its own,” he said.
“We were taking the path of truth, I think, God was with us also in this,” he added.
Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi also addressed the gathering.
“This Operation Sindoor, as told by the Navy chief that the character of war is changing, every day we find new technologies coming in, technologies coming in a big way in warfare.
“And, Operation Sindoor has again given us a clear idea of where we are headed and what we need in future. So, a lot of work needs to be done, realigning our own thought processes also, which is also going on,” he said.
The IAF chief also spoke of the recent clearance given by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to the “execution model” to design and produce India’s ambitious fifth-generation stealth fighter jet — the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA).
The “execution model” approach provides equal opportunities to both private and public sectors on a competitive basis, the ministry said May 27.
“The fact that AMCA — Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, I am not calling it what generation, because finally when it comes out, it should be of contemporary generation, but AMCA has been cleared for participation even by the private industry, which is a very big step.”
“And, that is the kind of confidence, I think, the nation has in private industry too. And, I am sure this is going to pave our way to bigger things coming in the future,” the IAF chief said.
Air Chief Marshal Singh, without going into numbers, said his force is trying its best to do the maximum possible as far as the ‘Make in India’ initiative is concerned.
While talking about restraint, he said, “Even defence forces have been keeping this restraint of not calling ‘a black sheep a black sheep’. He, however, did not elaborate.
“Some of the rules that the government made.. I am not saying that we would have come on this path on our own. There were times when we were always doubting the Indian industry that it can give us the kind of return that we want, it cannot give us the product that we want, and we were looking outward,” he said.
“But, over the last decade plus, things have changed quite a bit, a rap on our knuckle has made us think inward, look inward, and then we realised that yes, there are a lot of opportunities that we have, within India,” the IAF chief said.
He emphasised that the current situation in the world has “made us realise that Atmanirbharta is the only solution”.
“But, we have to be ready now to be future-ready,” the IAF chief asserted.
“So that is the concern, that yes, I can look at the next 10 years, we can have certainly more output from the industry…the DRDO, but what is required today is required today. So, we need to quickly get our act together– maybe get into some quick Make in India programmes, so we can achieve that now ready part of it, while design in India continues to produce results in the near future or maybe later,” he said.
The IAF chief pitched for boosting trust between the armed forces and the industry.
“We need to have the communication continued, to be open with each other, we need to be very open and forthright with each other, so this relationship doesn’t break down anywhere,” he said.
“Trust for defence forces, it is intrinsic, our default setting is trust… When we join any force, any group of people, any squadron, it (trust) is not built over a period of time, it comes in the first sortie, the very first mission that you fly, you have to trust each other… one mistake can cause a failure.
In the context of a nation, he likened the armed forces, the industry, the DRDO and other stakeholders as “links” in a “bigger chain”, and said, each one will “have to ensure that we are not a weak link, because of which this chain will break”.
PTI
