Indian Air Force: News & Discussions

[Nutcracker]

Gem of probably biggest arm of our military.

Uber, India’s leading ridesharing app, has partnered with the Indian Air Force as its exclusive mobility partner to offer mobility solutions for official travel and commute of Air Force officers, veterans and families across the country.

Uber partners with Indian Air Force to offer mobility solutions - ET Edge Insights

Uber, India’s leading ridesharing app, has partnered with the Indian Air Force as its exclusive mobility partner to offer mobility solutions for official

etedge-insights.com

 

[jaijaganath]

Gem of probably biggest arm of our military.

Uber, India’s leading ridesharing app, has partnered with the Indian Air Force as its exclusive mobility partner to offer mobility solutions for official travel and commute of Air Force officers, veterans and families across the country.

Uber partners with Indian Air Force to offer mobility solutions - ET Edge Insights

Uber, India’s leading ridesharing app, has partnered with the Indian Air Force as its exclusive mobility partner to offer mobility solutions for official

etedge-insights.com

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Understanding the nature of warfare and strategic acumen has left our forces long back
Now wait for some report from govt org or office or some podcast where these officers will describe how they fooled the upper brass

Sometimes I think do they do it intentionally or someone can be so uneducated and naive

 

[Brood Father]

Not if it's going to be a money pit and those planes are hangar queens. I'd rather have our precious money go into more AMCAs and long range refuelers. That will get us 90% of what we need and far more effective than the Tu-160 bombers will be.

Bombers may not be required by IAF but could be used by navy . At a standoff range they could be very devastating to CBG and combine them with P8 and MQ9 they could be a force multiplier

 

[SwordOfDarkness]

Yep, that's one thing that worries me the most. We sleep peacefully (i don't understand how) saying that Su-30MKI's are our backbone and we can take on any adversary.

> Our total inventory of Su-30 MKI's is slightly less than or equal to their fleet of just J-11's.

> Equal number of J-16's. And then there are the Electronic version as well.

> Then theres the J-10 fleet.

> Heck their imported fleet of Su-27 family numbers around 50-60 % of our total fleet.

> Yeah, and 2 5th gen planes also numbering around 150-200

> Long range bomber, something we never look into.

* We have non-Aesa MKI's, some with only half their life left.
* Jaguars which have trouble just taking off
* M2K which form our backbone but are on the verge of their lives.
* mig-29, don't know what's their exact purpose
* Samosa Tejas, which lets admit, is an interceptor. That's it
* 2 squadrons of the rafales. Yeah we'll win wars with just 2 squadrons.

We can handle "conflicts" but it's really sad to say, that the outcome of any "war", like a fullscale one probably won't be in our favour if we strictly consider the role of air forces of both nations

WRT china, it is a matter of fact that the chinese will be largely unchallenged in air to air. The only saving grace is that they will also be unable to completely deny us air combat/support sorties.

IAF is extremely strong WRT pakistan, but in case of China, the bulk of the support work on our side will have to done by dudes on the ground with mortars/guns/drones.

 

[SwordOfDarkness]

Bombers may not be required by IAF but could be used by navy . At a standoff range they could be very devastating to CBG and combine them with P8 and MQ9 they could be a force multiplier

But CBG can also be very devastating to them if detected.... Single AAM and massive procurement, maintenance, training expenditure goes down the drain.

If we do decide to get bombers, making our own clean sheet design would be better (Lighter than B1/T160, twin engine 125KN with RCS reduction measures plus weapons bays designed for long range cruise missiles (~800km min, else will be within CBG reach))

 

[Nutcracker]

Now you matching intelligence of Raul gandhi and Tejaswi.

To avoid further confusion I will suggest you should make this sentence as your status/Signature.

Taking off from Andamans, flying across tiny Thai strip & launching salvo of ALCM from Bomber over SCS to target top Chinese megacities.

 

[Vishnugupt]

Taking off from Andamans, flying across tiny Thai strip & launching salvo of ALCM from Bomber over SCS to target top Chinese megacities.

Yes, but still IAF will be better organization to handle the bombers not navy.

Why?? Because such bombers will require intense support from fighter jets, refueling plans and AWAC.

 

[shade2]

Yes, but still IAF will be better organization to handle the bombers not navy.

Why?? Because such bombers will require intense support from fighter jets, refueling plans and AWAC.

Navy does a better job at equipment procurement/production
Navy MARCOS apparently also have Guccier gear than the Para SF per the expert memberaans

Navy overall is a more "serious" force, than the other two malai-khor wings, so i guess they'd do a better job at this too.

Anyway this bomber discussion assumes that the bombers will have anti ship missiles to go after carriers and all, not the classical bomber role

 

[jaijaganath]

https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/centre-hints-at-issuing-an-open-tender-for-iafs-mega-114-fighter-jets-deal20241029144935/

 

[Ayan Barat]

https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/centre-hints-at-issuing-an-open-tender-for-iafs-mega-114-fighter-jets-deal20241029144935/

At this point I feel like we should simply order J-20s and end all these nonsense of RFI-RFP-L1-Cancellation-Re-RFI

Believe me, that process would be more straightforward that whatever's been happening since I don't know how many years

 

[jaijaganath]

At this point I feel like we should simply order J-20s and end all these nonsense of RFI-RFP-L1-Cancellation-Re-RFI

Believe me, that process would be more straightforward that whatever's been happening since I don't know how many years

Yes
And above all it will be fifth gen
Our forces are capable enough to convince gawar Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence

 

[SlayingHell]

There is some dalal on Twitter doing "Gotcha..." seems some ex-serviceman, peddling weird and absurd logic that we should abandon our domestic program and depend on imports that will deliver later. Even after repeated e-belt treatment by desi defense enthusiasts, he is hanging on that rope.

Also, people should be given awareness that not every veteran is a patriot. Most of them are snakes and dalals.

 

[truthsoldier]

The never ending joke of India's fighter procurement. First issue 126 fighter RFP then settle for 36 after paying for India specific modifications and then again come back after few yrs with another fighter procurement running into yrs and billions of dollars.

https://aninews.in/news/national/general-news/centre-hints-at-issuing-an-open-tender-for-iafs-mega-114-fighter-jets-deal20241029144935/

 

[Nutcracker]

The never ending joke of India's fighter procurement. First issue 126 fighter RFP then settle for 36 after paying for India specific modifications and then again come back after few yrs with another fighter procurement running into yrs and billions of dollars.

https://aninews.in/news/national/general-news/centre-hints-at-issuing-an-open-tender-for-iafs-mega-114-fighter-jets-deal20241029144935/

We would've still recieved only 50 Rafales by now if order was 118. Dassault is unable to make even 10 per year. Even assembly line wouldn't have worked. It was a good escape.

 

[truthsoldier]

We would've still recieved only 50 Rafales by now if order was 118. Dassault is unable to make even 10 per year. Even assembly line wouldn't have worked. It was a good escape.

We were amongst first few nations for export in 2015 and I think dassault delivered all 36 rafales in 36 months

 

[Ayan Barat]

We would've still recieved only 50 Rafales by now if order was 118. Dassault is unable to make even 10 per year. Even assembly line wouldn't have worked. It was a good escape.

Definitely the production rate is low but isn't that a cause-n-effect loop type thing

An order for 150 Rafale is a huge deal. It would have been the biggest non French order at that time or to put in perspective, even today it's close to the combined total of all the orders other than French and Emirati. For this much of Euros involved we could've easily made them do

C-295 manufacturing facility launched: Here's how it will transform IAF's tactical airlift operations

India had signed a Rs 21,000 crore deal with Airbus to procure 56 C-295 transport aircraft in September 2021. These will replace the IAF's Avro-748 planes. As per the agreement, Airbus will deliver the first 16 aircraft in ‘fly-away’ condition from its assembly line in Spain, within 7 years.

www.businesstoday.in

or atleast

https://www.hindustantimes.com/business/tataboeing-aerospace-delivers-250th-made-in-india-ah-64-apache-fuselage-101703088006173.html

And voila, your supply issue is pretty much sorted

 

[Spitfire IX]

We would've still recieved only 50 Rafales by now if order was 118. Dassault is unable to make even 10 per year. Even assembly line wouldn't have worked. It was a good escape.

I think you have an inaccurate source. Before Rafale received its first export order (of many), Dassault was bumping along at 11 Rafale produced a year. As far as I know Dassault has been making >10 Rafale a year for 10 years or so. What's your source?

 

[Nutcracker]

I think you have an inaccurate source. Before Rafale received its first export order (of many), Dassault was bumping along at 11 Rafale produced a year. As far as I know Dassault has been making >10 Rafale a year for 10 years or so. What's your source?

They delivered 13 in 2023, and only 6 in first half of 2024 despite planning for 20.
So with French domestic order , india would've been recieving 8-10 only.

 

[truthsoldier]

Mrfa deal is gonna cost humongous. 80 Rafales for UAE costed 18.5 billion dollars 114 would cost 25 billion dollars. The lazy penny pinching behavior of govt towards domestic fighter programs that led to 3-4 yr delay for tejas mk 1a and funding delay of 3 years each in tejas mk 2, amca project will cost our economy atleast 12 billion dollars (at 50% indigenisation) and loss of sovereign decision power

 

[SlayingHell]

Ideal case to end this MRFA circus would have been "leasing a medium weight category fighter jet which is both land and carrier capable in 2015 ...."

my idea
114 for IAF
26 for IN

Total Requirement of 140 jets for 15 years "delivery starting from 2020"

Who are possible contenders ?
Ans: Mig 29 & Fa 18

Per unit price of mig 29 in 2015 is 40 million
Per unit price of fa 18 in 2020 is 65 million

So leasing 140 for 15 yrs would have costed us (approx & without any missiles and bombs)
Less than 5.6 Billion in mig 29 case
Less than 9.1 Billion in Fa 18 case

Lease would complete by 2035 ( exact induction time of AMCA & TEDBF )

There is no such thing as leasing in such large scale. Maybe a squadron atmost is workable but not that huge quantity.

Also Russia is not exactly in position to supply Mig-29. Neither is IAF interested in Amreek Fighters and this is coming from Import Air Force