IAF top brass to hold summit April 15

■ Ongoing China threat likely to discussed at 3-day conference

Indian Air Force (IAF) top commanders will be meeting for three day conference on Thursday even as it continues to maintain high alert at LAC with China, ready to meet any contingency.

The ongoing threat from China is likely to discussed during the conference.

It will address the issues of IAF’s operational capabilities amid tensions with China and future threat perceptions.

“A series of discussions would be conducted over a period of three days to address strategies and policies related to capabilities that would give the IAF a significant edge over its adversaries,” said IAF officials. New emerging threats in the form of drones is also likely to be discussed.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh will inaugurate the first bi-annual IAF Commanders’ Conference for the year 2021 on April 15 at the Air Headquarters (Vayu Bhavan).

The conference is a biannual conference held at Subroto Hall, Vayu Bhavan. The conference provides a forum to the senior leadership of the IAF to discuss critical issues pertaining to operations, maintenance and administration. The conference is attended by the Air Officers Commanding-in-Chief of all commands of the IAF, all principal staff officers and all director generals posted at the Air HQ.

Various welfare and human resource measures to improve HR and administrative efficiency will also be discussed.

As per reports, the number of fighter aircraft by China at its Hotan and Kashgar airfields have been reduced, but the numbers keep fluctuating from time to time there. While troops from two countries have disengaged from the Pangong lake area, the deployments by both sides continue.

India is also keeping a close watch on the Chinese surface-to-air missile batteries which continue to remain deployed close to the LAC near eastern Ladakh.