With IAF’s latest acquisition, the IL-78 M mid-air refuellers, fully operational, New Delhi deep-penetration air strike capability has crossed the range of its Agni strategic missile. Multi-role Sukhoi 30 MKI fighters can now fly non-stop for nine hours and target 5,400 kilometers away from Indian territory. This is a step towards New Delhi acquiring the promised strategic capability as the first PHALCON AWACS (airborne early warning system) is to be inducted into IAF later this year from Israel.

But the IAF would rather downplay this important milestone as it feels that India’s strategic reach capability is not merely about how far into the enemy territory our Su MKI 30s, Mirages and Jaguars with nuke-weapon carrying capability can reach. Just as there is no denying the military advantage of strategising how deep into, say, Chinese mainland our fighter aircraft can fly by hugging the international waters for air-to-air refueling, it is also about finding out how best to deploy this primary advantage during peacetime.

“The benefits from our A-2-A refuelling capability should be viewed as much from the economic perspective as from a military one. With growing importance of the Indian Ocean due to its sizeable maritime hydrocarbon traffic and the country’s growing stature as a global economic power, our deep reach capability has many ramifications. Consider, for instance, busy shipping channels like the Strait of Hormuz, Malaccan Straits or the Sunda Bay where in the conceivable future we could have interests and the acquired capability gives us a definite edge,” Air Commodore K.P. Nair, commandant of the Lohegaon airbase that is home to a good percentage of Sukhoi-30 MKIs (the other being Bareilly), told The Indian Express.

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