The 36 Rafale jets that will soon be inducted into the Indian Air force (IAF) will not be sufficient to take care of the force's requirements and the need of the hour is to focus on developing indigenous platforms across the spectrum to have an edge, said IAF chief RKS Bhadauria on Friday

The Air chief was speaking at a seminar 'Air power in no war no peace scenario' that was organised by the Centre for Air Power Studies. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat also attended the seminar.

Stressing upon the importance of developing indigenous technology, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhaduria said, "The 36 Rafale jets will alone not provide us solution for the IAF's need. We need to be able to use the indigenous Astra missile on the Su30s and across other fighter aircraft like the Mig-29 for better performance of air power."

He said the Indian Air Force will be "very happy" if in the next air skirmish, the weapons and missiles used by the Air Force are indigenously built.

"This will be a game changer," the Air chief said.

He however said the induction of the 36 Rafale jets that are armed with Meteor missiles will boost India's air capabilities. "But there needs to be more solutions," he said.

"We cannot just depend on Meteor class in the Rafale jets to sort out IAF's requirements. It's important that this capability on Rafale is complimented with similar capabilities on other platforms and we have taken lot of action towards that," Air chief RKS Bhaduria said.

Stressing on the need to shift focus on indigenous solutions, he said if for six decades the country could not work towards developing an indigenous weapon systems, then the focus has been in the wrong place.

"It's time we focus on the requirements and have this edge in terms of weapons and technology. Only then you can provide this edge to aircraft fleet," he said.

Speaking about the first anniversary of the Balakot airstrike, Air chief Bhaduria said, "It was a clear demonstration that there exists a space within the sub-conventional conflict boundary wherein the Air Force can be used for targeting, and yet have the escalation under control."

He also spoke about the government's ability to deescalate the tensions at the diplomatic level.

The Air chief said Pakistan's action in response to the airstrikes on terror camps was "fundamentally tailored to demonstrate de-escalation and the skirmish ended there". "Because of the success of this mission, there were many takeaways," he said.

Meanwhile, referring to the Balakot airstrike, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, "Balakot will continue to reiterate India's intent to employ the most appropriate resources for the intended impact, with an element of unpredictability and innovation as an integral part of the endeavour. It is this factor that must remain uppermost in our minds."