New Delhi, Oct. 7 -- IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal A P Singh on Wednesday said the Air Force is moving in the "right direction" but the pace can be little faster than it is today as he asserted that it needs to bolster its capabilities in the age of rapidly evolving technology.

In his address at an event here on the eve of the 94th anniversary of the Indian Air Force, he also flagged the delay in delivery of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk-1A, while underlining

that the IAF has been "actively engaging" with the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) on this programme.

"We have come to a way forward, and a now we are waiting for the HAL to complete whatever has been promised... I am very confident that in this financial year, we will be able to get a reasonable number of aircraft, at least the defence secretary has spoken about it," the IAF chief said.

The LCA Mk-1A variant is an indigenously designed, developed and manufactured state-of-the-art modern 4+ generation fighter aircraft.

Air Chief Marshal Singh said IAF's support to LCA Mk-2 or Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programmes continue, as also for the procurement of the 114 Rafale aircraft under the multi-role fighter aircraft (MRFA) programme, and procurement for medium transport aircraft, medium range helicopters, among other assets.

"These contracts are likely to be signed maybe in this financial year or positively the next financial year," he said, without elaborating.

On the C-295 aircraft medium tactical transport aircraft, the air officer said, "The 17th aircraft, the very first aircraft, to be made in India, is already in production.

There are some minor issues, which are getting resolved, hopefully it will come up in a month or two."

The first C-295 was inducted into the IAF in September 23, after India sealed a Rs 21,935-crore deal with Airbus Defence and Space to procure the jets to replace its ageing Avro-748 fleet.

Airbus will deliver the first 16 aircraft in fly-away condition from its final assembly line in Seville by 2025 and the subsequent 40 aircraft will be manufactured and assembled by Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) in India as part of an industrial partnership between the two companies.

In his addressing to a gathering of air warriors and IAF veterans at the Air Force Auditorium at Subroto Park,

Air Chief Marshal Singh also said there are areas in which we need "greater capacity, faster induction and more combat mass", and a need to accelerate indigenous R&D and production capacities.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.