LAC: IAF to tackle challenges from China by ‘safeguarding’ airbases, upgrading its aerial assets

The Indian Air Force is gradually getting equipped to meet the challenges posed by China It is upgrading multiple operational forward air bases to support China centric combat operations. According to a report by an Indian media agency, the IAF is enhancing the infrastructure of 20 of its airbases that are focused on China.

This includes creating hardened aircraft shelters (HAS) and improving taxiways, adding new radars and expanding munition storage sites. HAS are bomb proof shelters designed to protect aircraft housed within from missile attacks or air raids. The upgrades are being carried out under the Modernisation of Air Field Infrastructure (MAFI) programme.

The MAFI is a two phased airfield upgrade programme under which the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will upgrade a total of 67 airbases across India. The first stage of the project involving 30 airfields was initiated in 2011 at a cost of Rs 1215 crores.

The second phase signed in May 2020, involves upgrading 37 IAF, Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) airfields by the Tata Power Strategic Engineering Division (Tata Power SED) for Rs 1200 crores. This includes the installation of new features like CAT-II Landing System and CAT Air Field Lighting System connected to Air Traffic Control (ATC) which will allow the aircraft to take off and land in adverse weather conditions.

The paces of upgrades have significantly increased since the start of the nearly four-year long border standoff with the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Black toppings of forward Advanced Landing Grounds (ALGs) are done in forward areas to allow operations of fighter jets. For example, the 13,700-foot high Nyoma Airfield in Eastern Ladakh is on the verge of completion by October 2024.

In the event of war, the Chinese are likely to use their Strategic Rocket Force, to strike important command and control nodes and try to put the Indian Air Force permanently out of action. For India, the IAF is a trump card in any future war against China primarily because the most of its airbases are at lower altitudes, very less close to the mean sea level compared to Chinese airbases that are above 12,000 feet.

Unlike the Chinese People Liberation Army Air Force (Chinese Air Force)- PLAAF fighters must fly with truncated payloads due to the rarified air at those altitudes, the IAF aircrafts can fly with full fuel and weapon payloads and can be over any Chinese targets in less than half an hour. This is precisely why the destruction of IAF’s combat potential, including its airbases, is a priority for the Chinese.

To that end, underground munitions storage facilities are being constructed to keep IAF weapons stockpiles away and secure from strikes of the Chinese Rocket Force. New radars have been also been designed and installed to provide adequate early warning system and weapon quality radar tracking of Chinese targets in air raid. Chabua Airbase is another example.

The airbase located in Dibrugarh district of Assam under the Eastern Air Command has undergone various modifications since March 2000 that includes improvised taxiways construction of HAS and munition storage facilities apart from large apron.

Additionally, the IAF is training to operate from emergency landing strips constructed on highways Even if Chinese air raids ad missile strikes disrupt operations of the IAF from its airbases, it will still manage to do operations from emergency landing grounds. Furthermore, the installation of security perimeter (IPSS) is also being conducting on frontline thirty airbases.

This involves a five-tier intrusion detection and monitoring system that includes an electrical smart power fence, CCTV cameras with infrared illuminators, radars, underground vibration detection systems (UVDS) with dedicated optical fibre cables, dual PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom), and thermal cameras.