Some global players, including our adversaries, have made progress in fifth-generation combat programmes. We take that development seriously and factor it fully into our planning. But I would not measure the air balance only by comparing generations of aircraft.
Our capability-centric approach means that what determines outcomes in the air is not any single aircraft. It is the combined effect of sensors, weapons, electronic warfare, networks and trained air warriors operating as one system. That is the lens through which we approach both questions: when we will field our own fifth-generation fighter, and how we will hold our edge until then.
Our fifth-generation capability will come through the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, being developed by DRDO with the IAF actively involved. The Cabinet Committee on Security has sanctioned the programme’s milestones and timelines. The induction is slated for the next decade.
The programme’s industrial foundation has been widened through the industry-driven Execution Model. The IAF reviews the programme regularly with all stakeholders because we are clear that its timely progress is essential.
The first is the fleet roadmap I have already outlined: an upgraded Su-30MKI fleet, the MRFA in an early timeframe, and the LCA Mk-1A, with 180 aircraft contracted, to rebuild squadron strength.
The second is to deny an adversary’s stealth platforms the advantage they seek. Stealth is not invisibility. Extending the distributed sensor network I described earlier, we are building a networked counter-stealth capability. VHF and passive radars are being inducted, multi-static radars are under development, and ground-based and airborne sensors are being fused, so that a target detected by one sensor is correlated by another and tracked by the network.
The third is reach without exposure. Long-range precision and stand-off weapons, combined with electronic warfare and self-protection suites, allow us to hold targets at risk deep in hostile territory without exposing our platforms to the densest defences. Operation Sindoor demonstrated what this combination can achieve.
Also, the arrival of an aircraft is not the arrival of a capability. Turning new fighters into operationally meaningful squadrons takes pilot conversion, maintenance ecosystems, weapon integration, infrastructure, doctrine and years of hard flying. We watch these markers closely, and we judge capability on that basis rather than on headline numbers. And, as I mentioned, we are already looking beyond the fifth generation.
Until the AMCA joins the force, and long after, the IAF will remain a credible, networked and resilient force, fully capable of meeting the challenges the nation faces.
