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Dassault Rafale, tender | News & Discussions [Thread 2]

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Photographs trickled in today of the Indian Air Force’s first batch of 5 Rafale jets getting some gas mid-air over the Mediterranean Sea on Monday on their seven-hour ferry flight from Merignac, France to the Al Dhafra air base in UAE. Two French Air Force Airbus A330 Multirole Tanker Transports (MRTT) kept the fighters fueled for the long first leg. While one of the tankers landed at Al Dhafra along with the Rafales, the second continued east to India’s capital Delhi to unload a cargo of Covid19 equipment, including ventilators.

While the focus has remained fixed on the Rafales — the first imported fighters to enter IAF service since the Russian Su-30K (and later MKI) at the turn of the millenium, the ferry flight — and especially the sparkling images of the Rafales tanking up en route — has served as a hard reminder of the IAF’s serially fruitless efforts to buy new generation flight refueling aircraft. The IAF currently operates a small fleet of Russian Il-78M FRAs based at the Agra air base, and has been looking to acquire new, more capable tankers for over fourteen years now.

It was a particular brand of irony, perhaps, that the tankers that fueled the IAF Rafales on their ferry flight Monday, were the precise same type — Airbus A330 MRTT — that the IAF has had to drop plans of acquiring twice before owing to roadblocks on cost. In fact, the Indian Air Force is reported to be so despondent about another contest throwing up any fresh result, that it is seriously considering leasing tankers as a medium term option.

Things have changed dramatically since 2016 when the Indian Air Force was contemplating floating a fresh tanker tender. As Livefist had reported in detail at the time, the big entrant into any new contest would have been Boeing’s 767 based KC-46A Pegasus. If the IAF chooses to drop leasing plans and attempt a straight capital acquisition, it will be a face-off between the MRTT and Pegasus. In 2018, it issued a request for information (RFI) to trigger its third attempt at acquiring 6 tankers, but that effort hasn’t moved forward. But so convinced is the IAF that such energies will hit a cost wall yet again that they are seriously considering the lease option. The IAF has spent the better part of a year framing requirements for the lease route, and is understood to have made enquiries with the US Air Force too about available lease models.

And while border tensions with China have allowed the Indian armed forces to justify and push through acquisitions without the familiar fuss of red tape, the IAF sees fierce budgetary pressures as possibly greater reason to look seriously at the leasing option.

The path ahead is replete with self-imposed complications, in the best traditions of Indian defence planning. The A330, for instance, is India’s platform of choice for a proposed AWACS platform being developed by the DRDO. In 2015, the Indian MoD had approved plans to acquire two A330s for the AWACS program, largely because the A330 was also the ‘winner’ in the IAF’s then living-breathing tanker contest. Livefist has detailed that in this post five years ago. In 2018, clearly amplifying the IAF’s increasing exasperation, it informed the DRDO that the proposed A330 AWACS needed to double as a tanker.

Both Boeing and Airbus have been informed of the IAF’s plans to consider the lease option and have both communicated that they are available to provide any information that may support a decision one way or the other. In very real terms, this would be more Airbus’s loss than Boeing’s by many miles. While the European conglomerate has struggled to close military airframe deals in India, Boeing has been on an uninterrupted roll in India, with deals for C-17, P-8I, AH-64E Apache and CH-47F Chinook in the bag, deliveries of more P-8Is and Apaches in the offing — and an additional deal for the P-8Is likely to be pushed through next year. If Airbus has had a serial run of tough luck so far, its active current opportunities in India too are far from straightforward. The Airbus-Tata bid to build and replace the IAF’s doddering HS748 Avros with the C295 has been adrift for years now, while its bid for the Indian Navy’s 111 naval utility helicopter (NUH) contest remains complicatedly linked to the Strategic Partnership (SP) model.

Covid19 pressures and border tensions are having contradictory pressures on the impulse to procure and recapitalise. It remains to be seen where things land on tankers and beyond.

https://www.livefistdefence.com/202...y1tPG3Byah9Ji3b36UeYimcVoV6yVMtWqXtYyX3Y4QSFg
 
Rafale landing: Sec 144 imposed near Ambala airbase, photography prohibited
Jul 28, 2020, 11:06PM ISTSource: ANI

Ahead of Rafale jets landing in Ambala on July 29, Police informed about the security arrangements. “In view of Rafale's landing tomorrow, the administration is on a high alert.

Section 144 has been imposed in 4 villages closer to Ambala airbase. Gathering of people on roofs and photography during landing has been strictly prohibited,” Munish Sehgal, DSP Traffic, Ambala said. Further informing about Ambala Cantt Ram Kumar, DSP Ambala Cantt said, “The Ambala Cantt area is a 'no-drone area' as it is a sensitive zone.

Also, no photography is allowed in the area. If anyone violates these orders, action will be taken against them.” The first batch of Rafale jets took off from France to join the Indian Air Force on July 27. The jets will join the Indian Air Force fleet at Ambala in Haryana on July 29.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...photography-prohibited/videoshow/77226968.cms


 
Rafale landing: Sec 144 imposed near Ambala airbase, photography prohibited
Jul 28, 2020, 11:06PM ISTSource: ANI

Ahead of Rafale jets landing in Ambala on July 29, Police informed about the security arrangements. “In view of Rafale's landing tomorrow, the administration is on a high alert.

Section 144 has been imposed in 4 villages closer to Ambala airbase. Gathering of people on roofs and photography during landing has been strictly prohibited,” Munish Sehgal, DSP Traffic, Ambala said. Further informing about Ambala Cantt Ram Kumar, DSP Ambala Cantt said, “The Ambala Cantt area is a 'no-drone area' as it is a sensitive zone.

Also, no photography is allowed in the area. If anyone violates these orders, action will be taken against them.” The first batch of Rafale jets took off from France to join the Indian Air Force on July 27. The jets will join the Indian Air Force fleet at Ambala in Haryana on July 29.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...photography-prohibited/videoshow/77226968.cms



LoL

Worried about people queuing up to take selfies with Rafales.

:rofl:
 
SOURCE: INDIA TODAY

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This graphic really shows how brainless Indian media is ... if this is how the IAF thinks as well, then India might as well surrender to China right now. Between the IAF and PLAAF, I foresee an aerial slaughter the likes of which we have not seen since the Persian Gulf War.
I hope all Indians will believe this, their arrogance is a blessing for us.


Wow, he can't be serious?
The Indian guy quoted is an idiot ... doesn't he know that the Russia Su-57 also has a "third generation engine" as well? By his own remark, then shouldn't the Su-57 also be a 3.5 generation fighter?
 
These are the serial numbers of the five Rafales that are landing in India shortly.

PLLC-8WAZ-TRSH-6QC7-NSCY
PJ7F-GMAS-TRCU-4PUM-RUNH
PR33-WMAH-TJV3-JSNE-8KL6
PX8G-CUAT-T6Z4-6G4T-QUHU
P5JA-MUAV-TEW5-3A47-AJEZ
 





Mohsin Haqeim

@HaqeimM

·
Jul 27

Replying to
@warnesyworld
Sir wats your take about indian acquisition of Rafale and its Implications vis-a-vis China and Pakistan.


1










Alan Warnes

@warnesyworld

·
Jul 27

Well we know the PAF and the PLAAF exercise together regularly in the annual Shaheen exercises so I’m sure they have integrated some of their capabilities. If there a need. The PAF is undoubtedly tailoring it’s tactics to confront the Rafale/Meteor combo.
 
These are the serial numbers of the five Rafales that are landing in India shortly.

PLLC-8WAZ-TRSH-6QC7-NSCY
PJ7F-GMAS-TRCU-4PUM-RUNH
PR33-WMAH-TJV3-JSNE-8KL6
PX8G-CUAT-T6Z4-6G4T-QUHU
P5JA-MUAV-TEW5-3A47-AJEZ

Must be equipped with the latest Windows software. No wonder they're so high-tech.
 
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