Missing AN-32 plane my worst moment in office: IAF Chief
The outgoing Indian Air Force Chief Arup Raha on Wednesday said the worst moment during his tenure was when he heard about an AN-32 plane going missing with 29 personnel on board. Citing that the IAF undertook over 1,000 flying hours to search for the plane, Raha termed it as a mistake of not fitting AN-32s with underwater locator beacons.
The 24th chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha today addressed a press conference he termed as 'customary' for an outgoing air chief. Though many from the press corps disagreed, it made for a candid interaction with the man who has been at the helm of not just the IAF for three full years but also was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), the apex tri-service body for nearly 29 months.KEY EXCERPTS:IAF's fighter planes: The teeth of any air force is in its fighter planes. The government has allowed us 42 squadrons. As of now, we have a large number of Sukhoi 30 (10 squadrons inducted and three more will be done soon). We are doing a mid life upgrade and we foresee them to be around for the next 30 years. The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) TEJAS is a good, fourth generation plus aircraft. The Rafale is an excellent aircraft which will prove its worth in any scenario. We have just signed up for 36 planes. In the next 5-10 years time, we need more. One more line of aircraft production is required in India under the Make In India program. Need about 200 fighters over next 5-10 years. We have enough heavy fighters (like Sukhoi) but we need more in the medium segment.Worst moment: It came when I heard about the An32 missing with 29 personnel. We searched a lot, undertook 300 sorties, over 1000 flying hours. We had about 30 targets which look like the An32 debris. We have underwater assets which can search till the depth of 3.5km from the surface. From 30, there are now just 10 targets which remain to be verified. The underwater equipment to search could not do its job because there was a technical issue. We have approached the government to contract agencies from abroad who can search. Most of the Soviet era planes like the AN32 lack under water locator beacons. We have taken up with the government a case to procure such beacons. Within a month or two, a contract signed to arm all planes with such beacons. I feel, the An32 is not the best plane for this route. You can call it a mistake of not fitting these planes with the beacons.Defence corruption: From time to time, issues have come up. The investigating agencies have not been able to pin down those involved. It is not only the armed forces personnel who are involved in procurement. It will be premature to say anything in the AgustaWestland case. That a former IAF chief has been arrested obviously has consequences and the law of the land has to be followed. However, an ex IAF chief is like a family member to us and till a person is convicted, let us give him his due. If convicted, there should be no sympathy.China reacting to AGNI V test: Posturing will always be there. We should go about our task. Unless there is something being done which is prohibited like nuclear proliferation which is also happening by the way in our neighbourhood, if we are legitimately developing our capability, I do not think anybody should object.On air to air refueling planes of the IAF: The aircraft we have for the job are not very good on serviceability. We need much more. Unfortunately, anomalies came up and acquisition had been cancelled. Very unfortunate but you can't help it.Military diplomacy: We've done well. We convinced the government to step up military cooperation with nations in our neighbourhood, the SAARC region, far-east. Now the government is ready to sell them equipment too. This will help fill the void which our adversaries would have exploited.Disaster response: We thought we may or may not fight a conventional war but we have to be there to serve our people. We have been the first responders in our international humanitarian missions. We have aided the governments be it during the Jat agitation, running its mints 24x7 etc. We are also helping BSF, ARC, paramilitary forces and anti-Maoist operations.OROP: The agitation was a setback. It affected the esteem of the armed forces. I could not stem the agitation. What the government has given is reasonably good. I have told my people to accept it. Anomalies ought to resolved, including those from the seventh pay commission.Post-Pathankot: Much has been discussed and we are implementing the lessons learnt. We are now well prepared to tackle terrorist attacks. A lot has been done in training, orientation, weapons are being improved, field-craft has been improved. We are training a large number of manpower. Government has given us the authority to have 27 GARUD commando flights (each with 45 men) and 23 more have been sanctioned, taking it to total of 50 GARUD commando flights.