"Can't Worry About Cost To Kill Drones," Says IAF Chief AP Singh, Backing Manned 6th-Gen Fighter

At the CAPSS-IMR Joint Seminar in Delhi, Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh delivered a paradigm-shifting assessment of modern aerial warfare. Challenging the conventional obsession with "low-cost drones versus high-cost defense," the IAF Chief asserted that counter-strategy must prioritize the value of the target asset rather than the cheap price of an incoming weapon. Stressing absolute airspace coordination and "total domain awareness" to prevent catastrophic friendly fire, he firmly rejected the notion of an entirely unmanned future. ACM AP Singh highlighted that global powerhouses continue investing heavily in 6th-generation manned fighter jets due to the severe vulnerability of heavy-payload unmanned systems in high-threat environments.