The Balakot strike demonstrated the IAF’s ability of precision bombing, Air Force Chief B S Dhanoa said Tuesday, asserting that it is capable of taking part in full spectrum of conflict, ranging from “sub-conventional to nuclear”.
He said in case “we have correct coordinates, the AirForce is capable of doing all-weather bombing through clouds”.
Speaking at a seminar on ’20 years of Op Safed Sagar’,Dhanoa said precision bombing capability was very much needed during the Kargiloperations where targets were very small and at high altitudes.
“In 1999 (precision bombing capabilities) wasoperationalised only on the Mirage-2000 aircraft. Now all aircraft, Mirage,Su-30, Jaguar, MiG-29 and MiG-27 upgraded aircraft have the capability for precisionbombing. Not only that, in case we have correct coordinates we can do all-weather bombing through clouds veryaccurately,” Dhanoa said.
“We have just seen in the attack that we carried out onFebruary 26 that we are capable of precision strike from standoff distances andvery accurately,” he added.
Dhanoa, who was then the Commanding Officer of 17 Squadronand operating from Srinagar, recalled the air action that took place during theKargil conflict.
It was for the first time that the MiG-21 aircraft carriedout air-to-ground bombing at night in the mountains, he said.
Operation Safed Sagar was carried out by the Air Force inOperation Vijay to drive out infiltrators from Kargil.
Dhanoa spoke about the operational limitations that existedin 1999 and the innovative ways adopted by the IAF to overcome the difficultiesduring the conflict.
He also pointed out the non-availability of winter-clothingand “big intelligence gaps” during the Kargil operations.
“We had no (winter clothing)… I want to emphasis thatpoint. Winter clothing was authorised to units that were flying over Siachen.Rest of us did not have this clothing. We had our summer overalls and thewoolen inner. We used to wear two of them,” Dhanoa said.
The developments which took place post Kargil war havetransformed the Air Force in capability so as to counter any kind of air threatin conventional and sub-conventional domains of warfare, he said.
“Over a period of time, the Air Force has evolved in amanner that we have through a process of long our long planning and induction.Slowly, we got our ability to take part in operations across the spectrum ofthe conflict. It is now a force that is capable of full spectrum conflict, from sub-conventional tonuclear,” the Air Force Chief said.
At present, BVR (beyond-visual-range) missiles are carriedby MiG-29, Su-30 and Mirage-2000 aircraft.The IAF has the Airborne Warning and ControlSystem (AWACS) aircraft to monitor the airspace deep inside the enemy territoryand operates on secure communication with network-centric warfare capabilities,he said.