Air Chief Says Idle Airfields Security Risk

 

India – Bangalore: On Thursday Air Chief Marshal F H Major said, country’s posed a serious security threat is unused airfields and appeals to the state government to provide adequate security for them.

 

At Aero India 2009, the Major told reporters up to 500 numbers could be used by terrorists to operate small aircraft. He added “The unused airstrips can be used for not so honest purposes and being a state subject, the Home Ministry has asked the state governments to secure them.”

 

Air defence surveillance of India is little a bit weak and IAF having a few problems at low-level radar coverage, threat perception should be viewed seriously. He added that “We have come down and will pick up by 2017 and will have more than sanctioned strength by 2020. But, this doesn’t mean our combat edge will suffer.’’

 

Major said,” When we have a large inventory of platforms the maintenance and inventory management is a huge issue and to manage that is a great challenge. The ultimate aim of IAF is to narrow down our inventory to two or three particular classes of combat aircraft and a few mainstay transport aircraft besides a few mainstay helicopters.”