Army, air force differ in defence priorities -Governance Now

Army, air force differ in defence priorities

Army says focus on Pak, China, but air force eyes a comprehensive build up

Trithesh Nandan | October 15, 2010

Hours after army chief general VK Singh said that Pakistan and China are the two main “irritants” for India, air chief marshal P V Naik appeared to be more laidback regarding both nations.

He said, “The Air Force will go for comprehensive capability build up rather than threat specific development.”

Speaking at the 5th International conference on energising Indian aerospace industry in New Delhi, Naik said on Friday, “We have a long term specific plan which stretches up to 2022 and even up to 2027 where we have specified the types of capabilities extrapolating from the notes available now and build it on that direction.”

He also added that the air force is focussed on capability build-up based on the country’s aspirations. This, he said, will be reviewed every three years or five years.

Earlier today the army chief in a seminar had spoken on how Pakistan is building terror infrastructure on India's western border and Beijing’s rising military aspirations are cause of concern from the north and the northeast.

“We have two irritants. One, mainly in terms of how the situation is, in Pakistan where there is a problem of governance, where there is certain amount of support that is being given to some terrorists and where the internal situation is not very good,” Singh said, addressing a seminar on ‘Indian Army: Emerging Roles and Tasks’ in New Delhi.

The army chief said that India has to take the terror infrastructure in Pakistan very serioously.

With China there is a border dispute, he added, “We have a rising China, both economically and militarily. Although we have CBMs in place, we have a very stable border, yet we have a border dispute.”

The army chief’s reaction came after news that China is planning to expand its rail line to Nyangtri, a city located right on the border of Arunachal Pradesh.

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