IAF focused on long-range operations amid Indo-Pacific military competition, says Air Chief

The Indian Air Force is closely monitoring the situation across the Indo-Pacific and focusing on a specific set of capabilities, including ability to operate effectively over extended distances, to safeguard India's national interests, Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said on Sunday.

His remarks came amid growing global concerns over China's increasing military muscle-flexing in the resource-rich region even as India, the US and other leading powers have been pressing for an open and peaceful Indo-Pacific.

In an exclusive interview with PTI, the Chief of Air Staff emphasised India's core priorities: safeguarding its national interests, sovereignty, and strategic autonomy while advocating for a rules-based Indo-Pacific.

IAF focuses on long-range operational capabilities

"From the IAF's perspective, this demands a specific set of capabilities. We need reach, persistent surveillance, air mobility, air-domain awareness, networked command and control, and the ability to operate effectively over extended distances," he said. "Our strategic posture in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands provides a critical springboard for operations in the eastern Indian Ocean Region. Aerial refuelling and airborne early warning give us the reach and awareness to operate far from our shores," he said.

Without naming any country, Air Chief Marshal Singh also deliberated on the fast-evolving geopolitical upheavals in the region.

"The Indo-Pacific has become central to global security, and it is marked by growing military activity, strategic competition and contestation," he said.

"Recent developments across the region, including in its maritime spaces, underline the need for vigilance, credible deterrence and greater regional cooperation," he stressed.

IAF strengthens ties with friendly air forces

The Chief of Air Staff, elaborating on the IAF's preparedness, highlighted how his force is ramping up engagements with the air forces of like-minded countries to build "capability and trust" as "trust itself is an enduring contributor to regional stability."

"As for preparedness, we are closely monitor developments across the Indo-Pacific. Our approach is not threat-specific. We are building an IAF that can detect emerging challenges early, operate across multiple domains, and generate the required effects wherever India's national interests demand," he said.

He said the IAF is "ready, and will remain ready" to safeguard India's security. "We are also strengthening interoperability with friendly air forces through increasingly complex exercises and operational engagements. Recent IAF deployments to Australia, Malaysia and Thailand have given us valuable experience in extended-range operations, area familiarisation, large-force employment and maritime air operations," he said.

India has been working closely with Quad member nations of the US, Australia and Japan to ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and the grouping has rolled out a number of initiatives in the last few years to this effect.

Su-30MKI exercise highlights regional cooperation

Air Chief Marshal Singh also cited examples of the IAF's engagements with friendly air forces to build capabilities.

"In February 2026, for instance, IAF Su-30MKI fighters operating from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands conducted an in-situ exercise with the Royal Thai Air Force over the Indian Ocean," he said.

"They were supported by IL-78 tankers and our airborne warning and control aircraft. Engagements of this kind build both capability and trust, and that trust is itself an enduring contributor to regional stability," he said.

"Alongside these partnerships, the capabilities I have already spoken of, from ISR (intelligence-surveillance, reconnaissance) and space-enabled systems to electronic warfare, precision weapons, unmanned systems and resilient networks, will matter just as much over the vast maritime spaces of the region," he noted.