Vice Chief Air Marshal RKS Bhadauria said the combination of Su-30MKI and Rafale will be potent enough to tackle all adversaries, including Pakistan

Vice Chief Air Marshal RKS Bhadauria on Thursday said that once Su-30MKI and Rafale fighter jets will start operating together for Indian Air Force, it will be a deadly combination against India's enemies. He added that the combination of Su-30MKI and Rafale will be potent enough to tackle all adversaries, including Pakistan.

"Once Su-30MKI and Rafale start operating together, it'll be a potent combination against our adversaries. Be it Pak or anyone else,it'll be a potent capability.Any adversary would be worried about such a combination," Vice Chief Air Marshal Bhadauria told ANI.


When asked if Pakistan would think to launch a February 27-type operation once Su-30MKI and Rafale jets start operating together for IAF, Vice Chief Air Marshal Bhadauria said that Pakistan would suffer huge losses if they dare to launch any such operation in that scenario. Vice Chief Air Marshal Bhadauria remarked that the losses for Pakistan will be huge because IAF would have larger and better weapons.

"For any such operation by Pak,they would have losses much more.We would have larger&better weapons. The attrition that we'll inflict would be be very high," remarked the Vice Chief Air Marshal.

Meanwhile, IAF is planning to buy 18 more Sukhoi Su-30MKI multi-role fighters and 21 Mikoyan MiG-29 air superiority jets from Russia to add extra teeth to its arsenal. It is to be noted that IAF already has a sanctioned strength of 272 Su-30MKIs and also operates 69 MiG-29 UPGs.

A total of 42 squadrons are required by IAF to be effective during a two-front war with China and Pakistan but the IAF is currently operating with only 31 squadrons as it retires the older MiG-21 and MiG-27 aircraft. The additional Su-30MKI and MiG-29 jets will add two more squadrons to the IAF fighter fleet.