‘All defence services are prepared for any challenge coming in from Pakistan’, states CDS Bipin Rawat

New Delhi, January 21: With relations straining between India and Pakistan with each coming day, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat on Monday said it was very difficult to predict if a scenario of a war with Pakistan would emerge or not but all the defence services were prepared to take on any challenge. While on one hand the Indian Defence is inducting the Sukhoi-30 MKI squadron, the Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbaug Singh asserted that the proscribed terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen is on the verge of complete wipe out in South Kashmir.

 

The top general, who inducted the Sukhoi-30 MKI squadron here, was responding to a question about any possibility of a war emerging between India and Pakistan. “All the defence services are tasked to be prepared for any option that may emerge. It is very difficult to predict a scenario. But, we are always prepared for any task that may be assigned to us,” Gen Rawat said.

The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) said his new role was aimed at integrating defence systems and the three services (the Army, the Navy and the Indian Air Force). It was for this reason the post of CDS was created, he said. “...we will keep moving towards better integration and jointness,” Rawat, who was appointed the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff on December 30 last year, added.

On strengthening the Air base here, Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria said it will undertake the role of the southern peninsula’s air defence. The Indian Air Force commissioned a squadron of Sukhoi-30 MKI at the Air Force Station here, the first such base in south India for the high profile fighter jets, seen as a gamechanger in guarding the strategically important Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

The ‘Tigersharks’ squadron of Sukhoi 30 MKI jets integrated with the BrahMos cruise missiles was inducted in the presence of the Air Chief and top officials. The Su-30 MKI is a state-of-the-art all weather multi-role fighter aircraft capable of undertaking varied air defence, ground attack and maritime missions.