The biggest worry should be recruitment as well. Right now, the IAF has less pilots per plane (1:0.86). Marry that to the low serviceability of the Sukhoi's (although that 55% is incorrect, its close to the higher 60s now after some serious self introspection). That still means that even with 272 Sukhoi'.. what the IAF can actually field is around 180. How many of these will have pilots constantly available to fly?
What the IAF needs is a revamp of the recruitment policy and realizing that with India's improving economy there will be lesser motivation to Join the IAF regardless of patriotism or not. Its plain.. I want a BMW rather than a Honda mentality.
Essentially, that has to come via better benefits for potential recruits and a wider recruiting policy. The IAF may be getting patriotic recruits, but they are ham fisted and cant keep an aircraft steady, means that they aren't getting enough to be able to meet their quota of qualified people.
As for the Tejas.. the focus still seems to be on the IAF whereas the better approach to give impetus to the program is to run the export potential concurrently. The Rafale will come in fits and starts since it takes more than Modi to break years of babu-raj.
there are more worries.
Jaguar refit is going no where - one of the biggest boost would be the F125 Honeywell re-engine project along with the
darin III upgrade for the Jaguar, making it a potent strike platform close to a tornado like ability.
R27B stress fractures sent the DARE III upgrades down the drain, which could have given some breathing room to LCA>
and then there is the LCA... being pro-LCA, I am now having some serious doubts on HAL's lack lustre PDM strategy behind the project. LCA 1P which should have been logical mk1, is running almost 4 years late, purely due to HAL and not ADA this time around. This is extremely worrying factor. Two consecutive HAL products IJT and HTT 36 seems to be dud in accordance to IAF. With Rafale gone, and all hopes pinned on MKI and FGFA, HAL should now be serious in putting some int-cap in LCA, or else I see HAL along with other Labs being in quite a bit of trouble in coming years.
IAF's major problem now is it's prime A/c manufacturing ecosystem going in a very wrong direction...
In that case, that resonates with point 3, and underlines our greater need for very many very reliable light-weight fighter and fighter-bomber aircraft. We don't need high-performance air superiority fighters, we need workhorses that can keep up the pressure over a protracted period of time.
Sir, with the highest due respect, I would disagree to your comment.
Irrespective of the Strike package configurations for FAC, CAS or AI, your strike package will still need platforms configured in air superiority role- (Which may or may not be a Air Sup platform).
Now this is where Multi role aircraft's come in (I am not shifting the goalpost from Air Sup to multirole) What a platform like Mirage2k or a MKI brings to the table is a the capability of the same platform being used as a CAS/AI configuration, along with a dedicated Air supp role, giving your fleet immense flexibility, creating Pilot base that handles all types of missions wit ease, and consolidates mission capabilities within your squadron.
The reason for mentioning Multi-role is because IAF's idea of Multirole a/c has a lot of capital in the philosophy of picking Multi-role capabilities on a Air Superiority platform in instead of the picking a strike a/c with self defense capabilities. Difference between approach behind a Jaguar/27M compared to Mirage 2k and MKI.
One of the most reluctant inductions in the IAF was Jaguar Sepecat, if you look at the original pick - SAAB Viggen, that to fits the description of Air Sup platform masquerading as Multirole strike platform.
This is one of the expectations from the LCA too- to be a through bred, Air Sup Platform capable of holding it's own against any platform in the sky, but have the capability to carry strike operations, as the science behind delivering ground munitions is simpler by nature.