Indian Air Force: News & Discussions

[Ayan Barat]

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/pm-...-art-f-35-fighter-jets-to-india-7706114/amp/1

Trump Says US To Sell State-Of-Art F-35 Fighter Jets To India​

View attachment 25117

Spoiler: POTUS's statment for Indian MIC...

 

[Nutcracker]

AF wanted to get the Rafales but government said no , they were forced to get Tejas

MK1A is not Rafale's replacement. It was supposed to replace MIG21. IAF was gonna retire 5-6 squadrons of MIG21 from 2019-25. IAF retired jurnails should be taken to the task that why they didn't plan to order LCA timely.

 

[Mr.Evil]

Bruh what?

View: https://x.com/sidhant/status/1890176071049568712?s=46

Spoiler: Help

can anyone explain me what’s best for us here or what is going on,Iam not really into air side defence so I don’t have much info

 

[Ayan Barat]

can anyone explain me what’s best for us here or what is going on,Iam not really into air side defence so I don’t have much info

> If price is reasonable and limitations are only limited to "must consult, before using it against our ally" then fine; we're already having an appetite for a foreign jet under MMRCA so what's better than having a cheap and advanced stealth fighter

> If price is too much and so are the limitations like "must have our personnel on ground for maintenance, software upgrade would come based on Prime Minister's mood" then naaaah; an AMCA on a drawing board would be much better than a F-35 sitting on tarmac because we can't use it.

 

[Yuyutsu]

better to take small order like rafale and keep porks in check with their new chinese 5th gen (or not) toys.
and also ask for help on AMCA.

one or the other day we had to buy a amreeki jet so why not f-35. just for keeping amreekis happy and become more serious in our own 5th gen plan.




2 squadrons of f-35A and one for naval f-35B , which will cost around 5-7B $ as already bought by some countries.

 

[Gandaberunda]

better to take small order like rafale and keep porks in check with their new chinese 5th gen (or not) toys.
and also ask for help on AMCA.

one or the other day we had to buy a amreeki jet so why not f-35. just for keeping amreekis happy and become more serious in our own 5th gen plan.


View attachment 25130

2 squadrons of f-35A and one for naval f-35B , which will cost around 5-7B $ as already bought by some countries.

Well if we are indeed arm twisted to buy F35 then why order peace meal 2 squadrons atleast 3-5 squadrons should be ordered. Get the fighters in numbers. Also F35B is a no go USNavy themselves aren’t satisfied with it and not needed as well we are getting Rafale M for vikky and Vikrant and our third career is a distant dream

 

[iNorthernerOn9]

better to take small order like rafale and keep porks in check with their new chinese 5th gen (or not) toys.
and also ask for help on AMCA.

one or the other day we had to buy a amreeki jet so why not f-35. just for keeping amreekis happy and become more serious in our own 5th gen plan.


View attachment 25130

2 squadrons of f-35A and one for naval f-35B , which will cost around 5-7B $ as already bought by some countries.

Yes sure... let's build a zoo of 2 squadrons this... 2 of that... 2 or 3 squadrons very well serves the purpose of Airshows and RD flypasts. Waise bhi suar bureaucrats and dhoti-lungi chaap netas don't have the stomach for conflict. If F-35 has to come then atleast 80 in number... anything less is the clown playing to the audience (gullible illiterate junta).

What are those 36 rafales good for apart from giving a false sense of security/supremacy to the RD flypast crowd who don't understand that we have a 10000 km aerial front... & 36 can't/won't be present to defend even a third of it anytime?

 

[Bleh]

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/pm-...-art-f-35-fighter-jets-to-india-7706114/amp/1

Trump Says US To Sell State-Of-Art F-35 Fighter Jets To India​

View attachment 25117

Yes sure... let's build a zoo of 2 squadrons this... 2 of that... 2 or 3 squadrons very well serves the purpose of Airshows and RD flypasts. Waise bhi suar bureaucrats and dhoti-lungi chaap netas don't have the stomach for conflict. If F-35 has to come then atleast 80 in number... anything less is the clown playing to the audience (gullible illiterate junta).

Once the door opens, the dam will break. IAF will be wanting more. Navy too will probably prefer F-35C to operate STOVL... Chalo AMCA & TEDBF done bandh karke Mark2 & drones pe concentrate karo.

2 Squadrons Of F-35s For IAF! Trump Offers F-35 Stealth Fighters To India, Expert Calls It Ideal To Bridge The Stealth Gap

US President Donald Trump said that the United States will sell F-35 stealth fighter jets to India. Interestingly, the stealth fighters are participating in the Aero India airshow in Bangalore. “Starting this year, we will be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars. We are...

www.eurasiantimes.com

"I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the very evil people of the world," he said, referring to the extradition of 26/11 Mumbai attack plotter Tahawwur Rana to India.

Rana, currently detained at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles, is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the terror attack.

"He is going to be going back to India to face justice," Trump said. "We're giving him back to India immediately" and more such extraditions could follow as we have quite a few requests (from New Delhi)," he added.

 

[Bleh]

No serious individual would refer this site for defence news... where did these morons get the source for 2 squadron claim?

It's everywhere now

 

[Bleh]

Money doesn't grow on tree but National security of the country does ?
The role of IAF is not to either make jets or to fund and research critical technologies. Their role is to safeguard country which they are doing with reduced squadrons by flying obsolete airframes and risking lives of our airmen

I completely understand why government is not keen on MRFA but what about alternatives? Tejas MKIA was promised with critical techs but even that is not available and HAL is conveniently blaming everything on GE engines ..why they are not able to integrate Astra missiles or python missiles ?

This is not IAF job to deliver jets better HAL step up or don't cry when import lobby takes over

You know why this happened?

Pakistan bitchslapped IAF out of the sky & paraded around blindfolded, because when Jf-17 was in similar shaky status as Tejas at early 2010s... They backed it with their full force & inducted 50 without BVRs, while ours called it a 3-legged chertah.
And today IAF has to celebrate barely surviving AAMs from an inferior Air Force & make face-saving claims that literally noone other than Indian civilians were fooled by.

Combat is an extension of politics & policies.

 

[BHARAT KA BETA]

I know it is really bad for Whap ( Tata & Mahindra) to go with the Stryker, but Indian GOVT. had no other option to defend itself from heavy Tariffs as India enjoys huge Trade surplus( by percentage) with USA...& only purchasing oil was not going to be enough, we had to buy goods of large prices....BUT BUT BUT , DON'T YOU THINK purchasing of Stryker or Javelin is not going to possess any compromise with our strategic neutrality ? It is still better than to go with strategic weapons like FIGHTER JETS/ SUBMARINES/LONG RANGE MISSILES/AVIONICS...though the POTUS has mentioned about sell of F35, I think Indian GOVT. is smart enough to not get into that trap....& Lastly for WhAP , I think Indian Army has huge requirement of Armoured vehicles & 200-300 Strykers are never going to fulfill that, WhAP will be there in significant numbers....I am a neutral person & I think it is too early to make any criticism on Indian GOVT. EXCEPT THEIR SLOW & LATE PROCUREMENT POLICIES OF Indigenous weapons LIKE ATAGS/ WhAP/MGS/LCH/LCA etc.

 

[SKC]

If we really have to buy a phoren ka plane then I would have liked to buy F-35 more than Rafales.
F-35 already has a big ecosystem and economy of scale and readily available spares and easy maintenance.
It has much more stealth than Rafala too.

 

[Yuyutsu]

Yes sure... let's build a zoo of 2 squadrons this... 2 of that... 2 or 3 squadrons very well serves the purpose of Airshows and RD flypasts. Waise bhi suar bureaucrats and dhoti-lungi chaap netas don't have the stomach for conflict. If F-35 has to come then atleast 80 in number... anything less is the clown playing to the audience (gullible illiterate junta).

What are those 36 rafales good for apart from giving a false sense of security/supremacy to the RD flypast crowd who don't understand that we have a 10000 km aerial front... & 36 can't/won't be present to defend even a third of it anytime?

that gives us more than 20B$ as bill amount. are we ready to shell out this much money? would it result in good continued relations with russians?

 

[Ayan Barat]

would it result in good continued relations with russians?

• From an ally and UNSC point of view; yeah, it might hurt a bit.
But Russia too is in a dire situation after prolonging this war for so long, so it's a question for it too that whether it wants the alliance of a "good" country like us or rather make a gang of rouges like Iran and NoKo.

• From a defence contracting point of view; not really.
BMP-2 and T-72/90 are already slated for replacement. Artillery is pretty much already done. After one more Talwar I don't think we're going for Russian vessel anymore. Pretty much all missiles from ATGMs to S-400 now have local and even better analogue. With each year Su-30MkIs are getting more and more indigenized; Virupaksha is the latest example. Ka-226, Mi-17 and Mi-26 got cucked by LUH, IMRH and Chinook.

 

[Bleh]

If we really have to buy a phoren ka plane then I would have liked to buy F-35 more than Rafales.
F-35 already has a big ecosystem and economy of scale and readily available spares and easy maintenance.
It has much more stealth than Rafala too.

+1 we still have only 36 Rafales. If we're importing then better to cancel naval Rafale deal & go for STOVL F-35C that'll better suit out sky-jump carriers.

 

[SKC]

+1 we still have only 36 Rafales. If we're importing then better to cancel naval Rafale deal & go for STOVL F-35C that'll better suit out sky-jump carriers.

For Naval fighter also, we had discussion back on DFI where we all mentioned that F/A-18 is far suprior Naval Fighter and combat proven than N-Rafale but since we already bought 36 Rafals for AF so we had to with N-Rafala.​

 

[aim120]

F35A means we will need a new air refueling tanker.
F35 B and C variants can use our existing tankers.

F35C also has the biggest internal fuel among all variants.

 

[Corvus Splendens]

If we really have to buy a phoren ka plane then I would have liked to buy F-35 more than Rafales.
F-35 already has a big ecosystem and economy of scale and readily available spares and easy maintenance.
It has much more stealth than Rafala too.

Honestly I have to agree as well. The per unit cost of an F-35 is cheaper than a Rafale now, it's a league ahead in capability. Let's be real here chaps, AMCA wont see service before 2036 and that too in limited numbers like the issues Russians faced with the Su-57. I don't think the F-35 necessarily threatens the AMCA program, but it may end up enriching it further. Maybe an opportunity for ADA to make a bigger AMCA. If conditions are favorable (no bullshit clause on not using it on Pakis), why not at this point. The LCA Mk-2 will become the backbone of the IAF in the coming years no matter what. Rafale no longer has a case if Lockheed provides full local MRO and maybe a local assembly line for the bird, or at least it's subsystems down the line. South Koreans are working fine on their KF-21 despite being an F-35 customer. Now usually enough something as sensitive as a Fighter from US has it's own catches. If our legal experts can work out a guaranteed supply of parts, engine, etc, F-35 is currently a no brainer to upgrade IAF's capabilities. And Lockheed will deliver the birds faster than any other maker. Just 5 squadrons are enough to tip the balance of power again in South Asia.

 

[samsaptaka]

I am extremely doubtful behind the intent of Private Sector ToT Kickstarter argument of IAF. The argument is fine it it's about impartation of Industry Standards and such. But iam doubtful since it's coming from IAF. What exactly private sector gonna learn about? Is it airframe composites? But then how exactly making a 4.5th gen composites from Dassualt gonna be applied to Fifth gen RAS? Is is about Internal Avionics? Because no private company makes them except for Gormint ones.

Iam yet to find a answer to what exactly MRFA gonna impart to private sector and how is that relevant to next generation composites or alloys?

I asked what EXACTLY private sector gonna learn with MRFA? How is that different from a private sector being given incharge of AMCA Or LCA Mk2. Like private sector already does majority of the work like Only front fuselage comes from HAL with remaining from Private Vendors in case of Tejas. Canopy, Display, Radar comes from Private Companies.

Are you saying somehow a 4.5th gen technologies impart gonna be translated to 5th gen magically?

If IAF was serious it would have pushed GoI and MoD to make ADA do ToT for full assembly of Tejas to a pvt player and guaranteed pvt industry that orders will be 100% issued in large no.s . Production could then have been split betn pvt and HAL to speed up deliveries. Somewhat like The ASMI carbine and Lokesh Machine tools deal . But none of this is being done except complain like school boy to headmistress by IAF chief.
They're getting what they deserved but sadly not what the young pilots deserve, who are being told year on year that you have to continue flying the coffins.

Tell me the best possible alternative to HAL that we currently have and I'll go personally drop a 2000lbs on HAL's headquarters.

Yeah, IAF attitude is similar to the OPs, they have no choice but to work with HAL, not dream abt gold plated shiny planes all the time from choicy brochures

 

[Migflug]

better to take small order like rafale and keep porks in check with their new chinese 5th gen (or not) toys.
and also ask for help on AMCA.

one or the other day we had to buy a amreeki jet so why not f-35. just for keeping amreekis happy and become more serious in our own 5th gen plan.


View attachment 25130

2 squadrons of f-35A and one for naval f-35B , which will cost around 5-7B $ as already bought by some countries.

If India buys F35 it's over for our aerospace industry. We will keep buying the "stop-gap" till the end of the century