Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh did not use his farewell press conference to celebrate. With four weeks left before he retires, the head of the Aeronautica militare indiana sat down in New Delhi on 3 October 2026 and laid out, in unusually plain words, how far his fleet has fallen behind.

India needs to bring in 36 to 40 new fighters every single year, he said, just to stop the decline. It is not getting anywhere near that. The briefing, held ahead of Air Force Day on 8 October, turned into a list of everything the service is waiting for: delayed Tejas jets, a 114-fighter deal still being negotiated, and a home-grown stealth fighter that may arrive too late.

It was also, as Singh himself pointed out, his last one. He is due to retire on 31 October.

Two squadrons a year, or the numbers keep falling

The arithmetic is brutal. The Indian Air Force is sanctioned for 42 fighter squadrons and has been well short of that for years. Reports from the briefing put the current figure at 29. Every time an old type retires, the gap widens, and the retirement of the last MiG-21 squadrons has already taken a large bite out of the frontline.

Singh put the replacement rate needed in simple terms. "We need to induct two fighter squadrons every year. That means anything between 36 and 40 aircraft should be produced and inducted," he told reporters, according to the Press Trust of India.

The Tejas problem

The jet that was supposed to fill the gap fastest is the HAL Tejas Mk1A. India has ordered 180 of them in two contracts, 83 and then 97, but deliveries that were originally due to begin in March 2024 are running far behind schedule, held up largely by engine supply.

Singh did not soften it. "There is some extra delay, and there is no doubt that it is going to hurt us," he said. He also called for fewer programmes and tighter delivery schedules, a pointed message to India's defence industry from a man who no longer has a career to protect.

“I think if things go well, we should be able to sign it in this financial year. That's what my hope is. But it is a two-way process.”

Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh — Chief of the Air Staff, Indian Air Force, 3 October 2026

114 Rafales, and a fifth-generation question

That hope was about the Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft deal, the long-running plan to buy 114 fighters, most of them to be built in India. The Dassault Rafale is now the front-runner. If it is signed this financial year, that means by the end of March 2027.

The harder question is what happens at the top end. India's own stealth fighter, the AMCA, is still years from flight, while Pakistan is in talks with China about fifth-generation jets. Singh called that "a cause for worry", but added: "We do have capabilities. It is not that one platform matters so much."

He confirmed that Moscow is still pitching its stealth fighter. "Russia has offered the Su-57, but no decision has been taken yet," he said, signalling that India may look at an interim foreign fifth-generation jet if the AMCA slips further.

Drones: evolution, not revolution

Asked whether the air force needs a separate drone force, Singh was dismissive. "Drones are not revolutionary to the Indian Air Force, but evolutionary," he said, arguing that uncrewed aircraft should be integrated with crewed fighters rather than run as a separate arm.

It was a fitting closing note for a briefing that kept coming back to the same theme. The Indian Air Force knows what it needs. What it lacks is the aircraft, delivered on time. His successor inherits that problem on 1 November.

The Hindu's stream of the 3 October press conference, in which Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh flagged the fighter shortage and the AMCA delay.

Sources: Press Trust of India, The Week, India Today, The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle