New Delhi
\nThe Indian Air Force is \u201cvery much alive\u201d to emerging threats that could arise in the Indo-Pacific region, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said on Sunday, and asserted that his force was prepared to deal with any challenge to protect India\u2019s national interests.<\/p>\n
Dhanoa also said there is cause for concern over the rate of modernisation and induction of new equipment in India\u2019s neighbourhood, even as India faces challenges emanating from \u201cunresolved territorial disputes\u201d and \u201csponsored\u201d non-state and transnational actors. But the IAF is capable of, and is moving ahead, for countering them effectively, he said.
\nAsked whether the IAF can play a role in smashing terrorist-training camps across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, he did not rule out such a possibility. \u201cThe IAF is well equipped to take on threats which occur from across the border, be it in the realm of sub conventional or other domains,\u201d the Air Chief Marshal said.<\/p>\n
Dhanoa also made an indirect reference to China\u2019s rapid modernisation of its air force and also about the infrastructure development Beijing has carried out in the Tibet Autonomous Region bordering India.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe IAF is well equipped to take on challenges across the entire range of threats that could emanate across our borders. While there is a cause for concern as regards to the rate of modernisation and induction of new equipment in our neighbourhood, the IAF is nevertheless, moving ahead with appropriate measures to cater to these new developments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the IAF was capable of playing a role to expand India\u2019s geo-political influence in the Indo-Pacific region, he replied in the affirmative and talked about IAF\u2019s capabilities, including having the second largest fleet of C-17s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the second largest fleet of C-17s in the world. Therefore, India will pull its heft in helping out friendly nations in times of human distress and humanitarian relief. In addition, the IAF is very much alive to the emerging threats that could arise in the Indo Pacific region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At present, the IAF has a fleet of 10 C-17 Globemasters, used for strategic airlift missions, transporting troops and cargo for long-range missions. The US has been pushing for a greater role for India in the Indo-Pacific which is seen by many countries as an effort to contain China\u2019s growing clout in the region.<\/p>\n
In November last year, India, the US, Australia and Japan gave shape to the long-pending \u201cQuad\u201d Coalition to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi The Indian Air Force is \u201cvery much alive\u201d to emerging threats that could arise in the Indo-Pacific region, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said on Sunday, and asserted that his force was prepared to deal with any challenge to protect India\u2019s national interests. Dhanoa also said there is cause for concern over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[312],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46967,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46965\/revisions\/46967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}