IAF –taking the front seat
Neelam Mathews Sept 20, 2012 The message was clear. A friendly retort by Air Marshal RK Sharma, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, at a conference on Energizing Indian Aerospace Industry co-organised by CII and Center for Air Power Studies expressing his delight that “HAL and the IAF were working together,” said it all. HAL and IAF -working together! The IAF is known to have expressed its frustration on the slow progress of its projects by HAL, Aerospace Diary has learnt. T Suvarnaraju, Director Design & Development, HAL said problems in the aerospace sector were “structural in nature and not related to ownership….One should also understand that aerospace sector is technologically sensitive and highly regulated by the government.” HAL, ofcourse, we believe, is associated with the government! The mood at the conference was cautious though the evergreen Air Cmde Jasjit Singh, Director General, CAPS, responsible for the very concept of the conf...