AIR FORCE DAY-2023: IAF one of the finest air forces in the world, says Air chief

Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari was speaking at the main Air Force Day-2023 parade organised this year at Air Force Station-Bamrauli in Prayagraj.

Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari on Sunday said IAF has constantly evolved over the past nine decades and transformed into one of the finest air forces in the world.

IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari inspecting the Air Force Day parade at Air Force Station-Bamrauli in Prayagraj on Sunday. (Anil Kumar Maurya/HT)

He said that if India is on the path to become a developed nation by 2047, then IAF must be one of the best, if not the best, by the time the Indian Air Force completes 100 years in 2032.

He was speaking at the main Air Force Day-2023 parade organised this year at Air Force Station-Bamrauli in Prayagraj.

The Air Chief said the vision, as laid down in IAF doctrine, is to be an agile and adaptable air force that provides decisive aerospace power in furtherance of our national interests.

“In order to make our vision a reality, we must all play our respective parts diligently. We must reform, or become a relic; we must innovate, else become mundane and we must transform, else become irrelevant,” he said.

He made the remarks in the presence of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan and many of his (Chaudhari’s) predecessors including Air Chief Marshal (Retd) RKS Bhadauria, Air Chief Marshal (Retd) NAK Brown, Air Chief Marshal (Retd) PV Naik, Air Chief Marshal (Retd) SP Tyagi, Air Chief Marshal (Retd) S Krishnaswamy, Air Chief Marshal (Retd) AY Tipnis and Air Chief Marshal (Retd) NC Suri.

Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said that from multi-domain operations to hybrid warfare, the IAF needs to recognise that modern warfare transcends traditional boundaries.

“We must seamlessly integrate air, space, cyber and ground capabilities to dominate the battle space,” he said.

Acknowledging that the last one year had brought its fair share of challenges, he said, “IAF has performed exceedingly well and passed every test with flying colours. We have not only circumvented challenges but also turned those challenges into opportunities. The current geopolitical landscape has provided us an opportunity to reduce dependency on imports by developing indigenous capability. We have successfully inducted the first batch of Agniveers and subsequent batches, including women Agniveers, are undergoing basic training. The rigour of training has been increased across the board for all training curriculums with more emphasis on self-learning and self-education.”