IAF plans to buy 80 copters for anti-terror operations

The move, senior officials say, confirms IAF chief S.P. Tyagi’s suggestion a few months ago that air power was available to the goverment for use in anti-terrorist operations. As of now, the IAF is used purely in a support role in J-K, for transporting troops and supplies, providing close air support to infantry movements and for surveillance missions with Army formations. Now, the government has decided to experiment with using air power as a pre-emptive force in the state, following a sudden spurt in infiltration attempts and encounters. The IAF is likely to raise more Helicopter Units (HUs) to house the new choppers.

The government had on Friday cleared the purchase of a dozen indigenously-built Nishant spy drones for surveillance in the border sectors to augment its fleet of Israeli Searcher MKII UAVs.

That’s not all. The Air HQ has constituted thinktanks to draw up concepts on counter-insurgency warfare in built-up areas, to give the IAF’s new role a detailed operational profile. Israel had even offered to train IAF pilots in urban warfare.