‘Fifth-gen combat aircraft must for IAF’

No Pak drone would have gone back in presence of close-in weapons system during Op Sindoor: Ex-Air Chief

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WHILE batting for fifthgeneration Advance Medium Combat Aircrafts, former Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa (Retd) tells Harpreet Bajwa that during Operation Sindoor, if the Close-In Weapons System were in place, not one Pakistani drone would have gone back, and if the Rafale had been available for Balakot Operation, the results would have been different. Excerpts:

Technology is changing fast, and what is needed to update IAF on equipment, training, and technology? There is nothing new we have not already catered for. Now, after the Ukraine conflict, the world is talking of drones. The IAF has been using combat drones since 2001. When I was the Vice Chief in 2015, we initiated the process of developing a close-in weapons system (CIWS); its purpose was to strike and destroy all drones. But what is the challenge with drones? Some of them are huge; you can hit them with a missile, but there is a cost-benefit ratio. The drone costs $1,000, and hitting it with a missile costs $1 million. That does not work out.