NEW DELHI, April 13: Indian Air Force (IAF) will soon upgrade over 120 Soviet-made MiG-27 fighter aircraft in its possession to make them a modern weapon system, Air Chief Marshal S K Sareen said. ``The modernisation is very much on the cards and will mainly involve upgradation of the existing radar system, avionics and weapon system of the aircraft,'' he told reporters on board IAF special plane yesterday while returning to Delhi from Mumbai after witnessing the air-show there. There are seven squadrons of MIG-27s in the IAF whose number is put between 120-130.Brushing aside a question whether the Air Force was planning to buy more sophisticated aircraft, he said, ``If we can upgrade what we have, it will be more than sufficient.''
Sareen said Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) has so far done an excellent work in rendering services to the Air Force and was capable of handling the upgradation of MIG-27s.
The Air Chief said an expert team would first study the present requirements of the IAF andother factors before suggesting the areas in which the aircraft requires modernisation and then it would be worked out which equipment were to be imported.
Asked whether the British-made Jaguars, which served India during IPKF operations in Sri Lanka, would also be modernised, Sareen said, ``Not now. Let's do the old things first. The upgradation of MIG-27s are very much on cards.''
On induction of women as fighter pilots in the Air Force, Sareen said that he had talked to the Royal Air Force (RAF) chief in this regard recently. The RAF chief said that tests were being carried out on four versatile women pilots to gauge their capability to endure enormous strain involved in flying fighter planes, he said.
Preliminary results have shown that these women pilots were facing certain physiological strain, Sareen said and added ``we do not want to rush into induction of women fighter pilots.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
