IAF boosting might along LAC

(The Pioneer) : In an apparent effort to counter growing Chinese military prowess along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the IAF is strengthening its infrastructure including airfields like Kargil and Nayoma in Ladakh and installing low level radars to detect intrusion by Chinese helicopters into the Indian territory in North and North-Eastern India.
Refraining from naming China, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne said here on Monday the main objective of lengthening the runways of Nayoma and Kargil was to enable fighter jets and heavy transport planes like the IL-76 and C-130 J to land and take off. “These upgraded airbases will give us defensive and offensive options and the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has to give its final approval,” he said.
Moreover, the longer runways will also allow the C-17 transport planes to be acquired from the US in the next few months thereby increasing the operational capabilities in western and eastern Ladakh and maintain year long maintenance even in inclement weather, he said.
Addressing his maiden Press conference on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the IAF on October 8, Browne said similar measures were underway in the North-East States under the North-Eastern Development Plan.
Browne’s statement indicated that once the Nayoma airbase with a runway of more than 12,000 feet and at an altitude of 13,000 feet and Kargil with an airstrip measuring under 6,000 feet are upgraded, the IAF will enhance its strategic reach inside China through its long range SU-30 fighter jets. They will be provided critical logistical support by giant transport planes which at present cannot land at Nayoma and Kargil and have to maintain support either from Leh or Srinagar.
The Kargil airbase at present leased out to the IAF by the Airport Authority of India after the base became operational in 1996 in the wake of the Kargil war. “The IAF will have to do fair amount of work including the lengthening of the runway from 6,000 feet,” the Air chief said.
Answering a question about repeated Chinese incursions into the Indian territory across the LAC including the recent incident of a Chinese helicopter coming into Ladakh region, Browne said the IAF was in the process of acquiring light weight low level mountain radars.
“These radars will take care of airspace in northern and North-eastern sector and these radars will be in place by 2016-17,” he said. Till then, the IAF and the Army has to depend on the visual detection system put in place by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP) which is deployed in Ladakh, the Air chief said.
Browne, however, said these intrusions take place due to perception of border which is yet to be demarcated. “In fact, misperception about the territory is on both sides (India and China),” he added.
As regards shoring up the declining force levels, the Air Chief said the IAF will maintain 34 squadrons of fighter jets at all times and hopes to have 42 squadrons by 2022 which coincides with the 13th Plan.
Elaborating upon modernisation plans, Browne said the IAF has made rapid advances in the last 15 years and claimed this pace of progress is unmatched all over the world. He said the IAF by 2022 will be fully capable of guarding the country’s strategic interests at home and abroad.