As a patriotic Indian, I agree with the ratings given to the Indian Air Force but not because of the reasons expressed by the other raters. I like the IAF because of the tremndous job they are doing despite the weight of babudom and politicians around their necks. The IAF has come a long way from flying the Westland Wapitis to Sukhoi 30s but it is a always a classic story of too little too late. Crucial equipment like the ’’Look down Radar & Doppler Radar’’ were not available for decades. Even now the IAF is helpless against very low flying objects because it’s radar systems can not detect any object flying below 50 mtrs.
As for the helicopter gun-ships, the less said the better. A country with a huge borderline and a festering insurgency in almost 7 states, has just a handful of helicopter gunships of Soviet vintage which saw service in the Brezhnev era. The need of the hour is at least 10 -12 squadron of APACHE class gunships to pack a meaningful punch.
The same goes for the Surface-to-Air Missile systems. The IAF is still making do with the decades old SAM-6s while the world has gone far ahead. That is precisely the reason why I doff my hat to the valiant boys of the IAF for fighting with one hand tied behind there backs.
SUMEER