Not enough fighters to take on Pakistan, China simultaneously: IAF vice-chief

NEW DELHI: IAF on Thursday said it simply does not have the requisite number of fighters to simultaneously take on both China and Pakistan, grappling as it is with just 33 squadrons when at least 42 are required to be comfortable against a collusive threat.

Handling Pakistan alone is not a problem, even though it’s now getting eight more F-16s from the US on the specious ground of counter-terrorism despite India’s strong protest. Pakistan will now have over 80 F-16s, with superior weapons packages compared to Indian Sukhoi-30MKI fighters. In simplistic terms, IAF will have to deploy two Sukhois to tackle each F-16. IAF, of course, has already inducted over 200 of the 272 Sukhois contracted from Russia for $12 billion.