IAF Chief quotes Churchill to flag delays in fighter jet deliveries: 'Why promise what you can't deliver?'

IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal A P Singh addresses the CII Annual General Meeting & Business Summit 2025, in New Delhi, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (PTI Photo)

Amid the buzz around the Centre’s nod to the fifth-generation combat jet plan, India’s Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh has flagged chronic delays in deliveries of key defence projects. Speaking at a CII event in New Delhi on Thursday, the IAF Chief said that timelines are a big concern.

The Air Chief Marshal quoted Britain’s wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill and quipped, “Why promise what you can't deliver?” Churchill had famously said, “To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.”

#WATCH | Delhi: "We need to start designing and developing in India also and when it comes to producing in numbers, the capacity comes in. So we need to have this trust between the forces and the industry to continue...'Ek baar jo humne commit kiya hain, fir mein apne aap ki bhi pic.twitter.com/IQtRt5cleq
ANI (@ANI) May 29, 2025

Highlighting the persistent issue with the deliveries, the IAF Chief extensively spoke about how Tejas Mk1 has not been delivered after so many years. He said that the Tejas Mk2 prototype has not been rolled out yet. Air Chief Marshal Singh made the statement at the CII Annual Business Summit, where Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh delivered the inaugural address.

“We cannot just talk about producing in India. We need to start designing and developing in India also, and when it comes to producing in numbers, the capacity comes in. So we need to have this trust between the forces and the industry to continue,” the IAF Chief added.

This is not the first time that the Indian Air Force Chief has flagged the delays. Earlier this year, speaking at the prestigious Bengaluru Aero Show, the IAF Chief had said that he was ‘not confident of HAL’.

Also Read: India inches closer to entering elite 5th-generation fighter jet club: Here's who's in it

"HAL is just not in mission mode. I was promised that when I come here in February, 11 Tejas Mk1As would be ready. Not a single one is ready...," the IAF Chief said on February 10, 2025.

Prior to this, he had stressed on catching up on defence projects. "We were better than China in technology also sometime back, but we have lagged that and we need to catch up," the IAF Chief had said in October last year. As IAF Vice-Chief, Singh had also said that atmanirbharta (self-reliance) can't be at the cost of the country's defence.

What’s the Hindustan Aeronautics deal?

In March this year, Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics had amended its contract for the delivery of Tejas Mk1 FOC fighter jets. The original contract with the IAF was inked on December 23, 2010. Valued at Rs 5,989.39 crore, the contract saw multiple revisions in delivery deadlines. With the revision, the current value of the HAL contract is Rs 6,542.20 crore.

In 2021, the Defence Ministry had inked a Rs 48,000 crore pact with HAL. Under the contract, 83 Tejas Mk1A jets were slated to be delivered from March 2024. But owing to several factors, the deliveries were delayed. So far, HAL has not delivered a single combat jet.