What should be the strength of Indian Air Force squardon?

Several committees have recommended that 42 squardons of fighter jets is needed for the Indian Air Force to combat Pakistan and China in a two front war scenario(i.e worst case scenario). but currently there is only approximately 32 squardons of fighter jets operational in the Indian Air Force.

What is the composition of fighter jets in Indian Air Force?

• Mig-21 bought from Soviet unoin(Russia)- 54 fighter jets i.e 3 squardons. (1 squardon is equal to 18 fighter jets)
• jaguar bought from United kingdom- 118 fighter jets i.e 7 squardons.
• Mig-29 bought from soviet union- 65 fighter jets i.e 4 squardons.
• Mirage 2000 bought from France(Dassault company)- 45 fighter jets i.e 2.5 squardons.
• SU -30 Mki bought from soviet union- 273 fighter jets ie, 15 squardons.
• Tejas, indigenously developed by Hindustan Aeronautics limited-  40 fighter jets i.e, 2 squardons.
• Dassault rafale bought from France- 36 fighter jets i.e 2 squardons.

If we add all the above fighter jets the squardon strength of Indian Air force is 35( including 36 rafale and 20 tejas MK1 which will be inducted in Indian Air Force by end of 2021).v Also, by 2022 most of the Mig 21s(3 squardons) will be deinducted or rolled out from the Indian Air Force. so by 2023 IAF will  have 32 squardons.

Full strength of 42 squardons is achievable or not?

As we know IAF will operate only 32 squardons including 2 squardons of rafale by the end of 2022. After that the induction of Tejas MK1A will start which is an upgraded and much better version of Tejas MK1. This deal of 83 fighter jets to be manufactured by Hindustan aeronautics limited(HAL) has been recently approved by defence acquisition council headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh. Current capacity of HAL is to deliver 10 jets per year, even if it is increased to 15-16 per year. only 1 squardon will be inducted in IAF per year. So by 2025 IAF will have 35 squardons. But going by the estimates of different Defence analysts by the end of this decade Indian Air Force can at max only have 36 squardons of fighter jets as jaguar will also start getting de inducted by the end of this decade. So, in near future IAF will have to operate below its sanctioned strength of fighter jets.

some facts:

Chief of the air staff: Rakesh kumar singh bhadauria

Vice chief of the air staff: Harjit singh arora

1st squardon of Rafale is stationed at Ambala air base in Haryana.

2nd squardon of rafale will be stationed at Hasimara air base in West Bengal.