Hyderabad, June 20: Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju has said that 126 multi-role combat aircraft, the latest fighter aircraft, are being inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF).
Speaking to media persons after reviewing the Combined Graduation Parade at the Air Force Academy at Dundigal here on Saturday, the Minister said trials by the fleet were over and vendors who qualified in the evaluation process would be invited to submit financial proposals.
Transparent dealings
Mr. Raju said the Defence Ministry had made acquisition for induction of weaponry into armed forces transparent and even speeded up the process with collegiate approach. The acquisition was the highest last year. Answering a question on combat roles for women officers in defence services, he said a committee of Chiefs of Staff was looking into the question and it would shortly come up with a methodology to post them in such places. The objective was to protect women from situations where they would be exposed to dangers. He welcomed the recent decision of the Supreme Court to grant permanent commissioning to women officers like their male counterparts. The short service commissioning of women in the past resulted in their retirement after 14 years. Mr. Raju said the Ministry would take a responsible decision on deployment of army to flush out Maoists as it was bound to cause collateral damage.
Addressing the Combined Graduation Parade earlier, Mr. Raju said aerospace power had revolutionised all other forms of warfare. He stressed on how the present decade was likely to witness rapid changes in weapon technology. He urged trainees to acquaint themselves with application of new technology to exploit full potential of aerospace power.
Air Marshal V.R. Iyer, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Training Command, and Air Vice-Marshal Amit Aneja, commandant of the academy, were present.
–Agencies