Top commanders of the Indian Air Force will carry out an in-depth review of the country’s air defence system at a three-day conference beginning Wednesday which will include possible deployment of the first batch of Rafale fighter jets in the Ladakh sector in view of the bitter border row with China, military sources said.
New Delhi:
The main focus of the commanders’ conference will be to deliberate on the overall situation in eastern Ladakh and on ways to enhance the IAF’s combat prowess over the country’s air space in all sensitive sectors along the de-facto border with China including in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand, they said. The commanders are expected to specifically deliberate on deployment of first batch of around six Rafale jets in the Ladakh sector by early next month as the aircraft are set to join the IAF’s fighter fleet by end of July, the sources said.
“The commanders will also review the evolving security architecture in the region and ways to boost IAF’s combat capability,” said a source.
The conference will be chaired by Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is also expected to address the IAF commanders. The IAF has been carrying out night time combat air patrols over the eastern Ladakh region in the last few weeks, in an apparent message to China that it was ready to deal with any eventualities in the mountainous region. The IAF has deployed almost all its frontline fighter jets like Sukhoi 30 MKI, Jaguar and Mirage 2000 aircraft in key frontier air bases in eastern Ladakh and elsewhere along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China notwithstanding disengagement of troops by Chinese military from a number of friction points.
The IAF has deployed Apache attack choppers as well as Chinook heavy-lift helicopters to transport troops to various forward locations