India: Section 2 - Market Overview

摘要

Fighter Fleet. With strategic rivals perched on both India's northeastern and northwestern borders in China and Pakistan, Indian defense planners are well aware of the need to maintain a formidable air- and land-based military component. As the combat potential of China's fighter fleet increases both qualitatively and quantitatively, India has been spurred to undertake the broadest and deepest modernization of the Indian Air Force in 30 years. Under current plans, the sanctioned number of combat squadrons for the IAF is set at 42, though the official standing figure of 33 is actually smaller, at an effective level of 28 (February 2021 figure), the lowest such level in decades. Of these 28 squadrons, 10 are composed of badly aging MiG-21s and Jaguars, both slated for retirement in the coming years. With the retirement of MiG-27 squadrons in late 2019 and the imminent phasing out of the IAF's MiG-21s, the number of IAF fighter squadrons could drop further, down to 23-25 by 2023.