Chinese Air Force More Capable Than India? Air Chief Marshal AP Singh Highlights Differences

With a threat from China and Pakistan, India is closely monitoring the advancements and upgrades being undertaken by the two neighbours. Many times it has been reported that China is way ahead of India on many counts. During a media interaction, the Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh shared that while China has gained an edge against India in terms of technology in recent times, the IAF is way ahead of the PLA Air Force when it comes to training and man behind the machine.

On the possible altercations with China, Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said that Indian Forces don't have a design to go offensive unnecessarily. "So we have our plans in place. One place we can positively say we are training much better than them. We have exposure much better than them. Because we do come to know through our sources how they train, how many different air forces they interact with and how many do we interact with. So I am very confident that as far as human angle is concerned, as far as our people behind the machine are concerned, we are way ahead of them," said Singh. 

Talking about the technology comparison of the Indian Air Force and the People's Liberation Army Air Force of China, he said, "As far as technology is concerned, we may be not so good as of now. We have lagged. We were better than them in technology also some time back. But have lagged in that and we need to catch up with it. As far as production rates are concerned, we are way behind. We need to catch up with that. And that will happen over a period of time. It cannot happen overnight."

The Air Force chief also called upon manufacturing agencies to come forward and increase their production rate. "When it comes to building the capacity, one is capability, another one is capacity. So building the capacity, it becomes important for our manufacturing agencies to come forward and increase their production rate," he said.