Commercial bids for Mirage to open after CCS clearance: Naik

(IBN Live ) : Naik, who is due to retire on July 31, asserted that the IAF is committed and prepared to thwart any "nefarious designs and threats arising from the enemies of the state"."IAF is emerging as a strategic aerospace force and is fully capable of facing any challenges it is posed with," he said.The IAF has embarked on a major modernisation plan, including major acquisitions and upgradations, which will give it a set of capabilities to meet all perceived threats "head on", he said.When asked on the recent terrorist attack on Mehran Naval Base in Karachi, the Air Chief Marshal said, "The latest attack on Pakistan's naval airbase was a wakeup call, but well before that we had started a security audit and we had instituted measures to improve the security of all our bases."Everything cannot be done at once, so we will take it up as per priority. In Kashmir, priority is more as it is in the western sector which is closer (to Pakistan). Then we will come down to South Western and Eastern sectors." On China and Brahmaputra dam issue and how IAF perceived the issue, he said, "Air Force is mainly concerned with air threat. Two years ago we realised, if we go on country-specific issues it results in arms race, it never finishes. We have decided that we will follow capability based approach".Stating that the long time perspective was upto 2027, he said IAF was making its acquisitions and upgrades based on the country's aspirations, its influence by that time and the air force's requirements. The Air chief said, "we always conduct thorough analysis on both internal and external threats. There are enough threats and they are not necessarily country specific.We analyse every threat." "I want to tell the people of the country, we have a big and very strong Air Force. Whatever threat is encountered from air and space, we are fully capable of handling it and over the years we will become more capable," he said.