Indian Air Force: News & Discussions (46 Viewers)

[Ajayant Tripathi]

Tbh Rafales are a cheaper stopgap solution than 5th gen jets. With F5 upgrade it probably can handle J35, if we have those in a decent numbers. So I wouldn't mind getting more of those.

We can't change structure of current Rafales, So it still will be subpar modifications. It will also come at high cost. If recent news about state of BVRAAM is true we essentially paid heavy bucks just for EW.

French should ideally open up their platform to us. Give us access to cutomize it to our needs.

 

[Ajayant Tripathi]

mig29( 60 ), Jaguars( 113 ), Mirages ( 46 ) are 218 planes total as of now from the wiki.

Either all of these or some might retire in the next decade of 2030-2040.

In the meantime you can bet more of the above models will crash irrespective of the herculean efforts of IAF pilots to recover.

Tejas, AMCA etc will continue to face those ((( engine supply chain ))) issues mark my words.

We don't want Eurofighter because too many cooks, we don't want Gripen because of the US engine, we don't want anything Russian because Khauf -e- CAATSA and muh ruzzian engine bad

We ofc don't want any Amerithrash for the obvious reasons.

What remains then ?

Also the Rafale is the carrot to get them to collaborate with GTRE to ressurect the Kaveri somehow.

It's not countering chong stealth jets, it's that we are losing planes in absolute terms as years pass by and continuing to flog these old horses is dangerous for pilots

Su 30MKI is way better than those retiring planes. So, Build more Su30MKI as a stop gap measure. But i am going to use these lemons to make lemonaide. Its aapha mai awasaar time.

The numbers many of us here are suggesting are neither here nor there.

We need to bigger our order. Say around 250 atleast.(aapda mai awassar) Ask the OEMs to enter a JV with Indian OEM. Mandate ToT, Indian manufacturing, and joint ownership of IP.

Its time to do or die. Stop gap are not solutions. They will never be.

Only solution is significant Indian ownership in platform. It can be a JV or a complete indian solution.

 

[Ajayant Tripathi]

Boss what else we do ?

Tejas not coming, amac not near to complete...what else we do ??

Nobody giving us engine....

I this case only option to buy

JV. We are in need of way way more planes. We have squeezed a lot out of our older platforms and they are in dire need of retirement.

So, We are going to buy a lot of aircrafts in near future. We should use this opportunity to force foreign OEMs into a Joint Venture with Indian OEMs, not HAL or any PSU.

A bigger carrot for a better reward. Newer platforms are expensive. Only few countries have financial strength to finance themselves. USA, China are the only two. European countries will need to form a collaborative venture. If India enters fray. There is a feasibility for two collobartive efforts.
Ideally French + India is a good match.

 

[Spitfire IX]

I don't understand the logic of buying more rafales? They are semi-stealth, not fully stealth. Spectra is good no doubt. But do we really need them now and maintain them till 2050? Our current strength is more than sufficient to tackle Pakistan and Kanglus. Even if we buy 100 more Rafale they will be insufficient in a war against China.

So, Stop Gaps are actually this time not a good solution. We have sufficiency to deal with Porkies and insufficiency to deal with chongs. Chongs are also not going to invade for atleast 3-4 more years.

In aerial domain we are handicapped by our inability to develop a proper jet engine. It is where we need to work on. We should not buy fully built planes anymore unless its a joint collaboration where India also has significant say.

So, We should on priority basis should be looking for following:
1. A large Engine order with most of the TOT to India and production in India. I am okay with few material imports. If during the crises the supplier OEM bails, we can invoke force majure to dishonor their IP.
2. A JV with significant Indian involvement and production in India. Possible candidate French.

Fighters needed.

They should turn up roughly on time.

Rafale Integrated already so no delay or cost for new type.

They should cost much less per unit to buy and integrate than first 36.

Insurance against very late or non-arrival of Mk2, AMCA.

One off 1,000,000,000 USD already spent on Indianisation.

 

[Ajatshatru]

JV. We are in need of way way more planes. We have squeezed a lot out of our older platforms and they are in dire need of retirement.

So, We are going to buy a lot of aircrafts in near future. We should use this opportunity to force foreign OEMs into a Joint Venture with Indian OEMs, not HAL or any PSU.

A bigger carrot for a better reward. Newer platforms are expensive. Only few countries have financial strength to finance themselves. USA, China are the only two. European countries will need to form a collaborative venture. If India enters fray. There is a feasibility for two collobartive efforts.
Ideally French + India is a good match.

France would need to convince several European countries to fund their fighter jet or engine programs. In contrast, cooperation with India is much simpler, as it involves dealing with just one partner. India is the most suitable collaborator for both the British and the French.