IAF fighter jets scrambled to keep China’s drones in check

New Delhi: Before the recent clash between India and China in the Yangtse area near Tawang, Chinese drones had moved very aggressively towards the Indian positions on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh forcing the Indian Air Force to scramble its fighter jets deployed in the region.

The Chinese military has been behaving aggressively over issues in the Yangtse in the vicinity of the Holydip and Parikrama area on the LAC where the Chinese side has been opposing Indian positions. “In the last few weeks, there have been two to three occasions where our fighter jets had to be scrambled to tackle the Chinese drones moving towards our positions on the LAC. The Su-30MKI jets had to be scrambled to tackle the air violation threat,” defence sources told ANI.

The Indian Air Force keeps a close watch on Chinese drone activities along the LAC in the northeast. The actions have to be taken as the drones or any aircraft can not be allowed to violate the airspace, they said.

The sources said if the drones fly parallel to the LAC, the Indian side does not have any issues with it but if the aircrafts or drones are picked up by radars flying towards Indian territory, necessary actions have to be taken to prevent any violation, they said.

The Indian Air Force has a strong presence in the northeast with squadrons of Su-30 fighter jets deployed at multiple locations including Tezpur and Chhabua in Assam.

The Rafale combat jets have also been deployed very close at Hashimara in West Bengal.

The Indian Air Force has also strengthened its air defence coverage in the area with the operationalisation of the S-400 air defence system in the Assam sector. The system can take care of any aerial threat in the area.

The Chinese and Indian side recently agreed on multiple measures to prevent any aerial escalation after the violation of air space by Chinese in Ladakh sector earlier this year.

After the provocations by the Chinese in the area, the Indian side strongly took up the issue at military talks and it was decided that the fighter aircraft of both sides would remain much behind their perceived Line of Actual Control in the area