Air chief for strengthening country's defence

Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi said economic progress of the nation was incomplete without strengthening national defence.

He was addressing a ceremony organised to bid adieu to Mig-23 fighter aircraft held on Tuesday at the Air Force Station (AFS) at Jamnagar.

The phasing-out ceremony of the fighter aircraft concluded here under the South Western Air Command (SWAC), with Flight Commander M K Singh, presenting the final documents of the Mig-23 fighter aircraft to Tyagi.

Four of the remaining five MiG-23 aircrafts belonging to the 224 Squadron of the Indian Air Force (IAF) have 32,581 flying hours during the last 24 years, and have continuously displayed their caliber both during war and peace times.

In his concluding remark on the occasion, Tyagi termed the phasing-out ceremony of Mig-23 as 'an emotional moment' for every air force personnel.

While addressing the media at AFS Jamnagar on the occasion, Tyagi also stressed the importance of strengthening country's military power along economic might.

"Definitely India is all set to become an economic power house, but to sustain economic strength of any nation, strengthening the nation equally on military front also becomes crucial, while we talk of developed nations like Japan etc, we cannot overlook the military cover to this nation."

Talking on the paradigm shift IAF is passing through in terms of technology advancement, Tyagi claimed sure shot progress in this direction, saying, "Now-a-days we are not talking aviation sciences as far as Indian Air Force is concerned, but we have already taken a Gen Next step in this direction as we have started migrating from air space to aerospace and are more or less working in aerospace technology-driven domain."