F-16s to India

[Majnun]

F-16 fighter plane is the pride of Pakistan's armed forces but now, the makers of one of the world's deadliest fighter planes say, they are ready to sell a much superior version to India.

The Falcon 16, a warplane 26 years old, is Pakistani Air Force's pride and joy.

India doesn't have a single one of these. But now, the F-16 manufacturers 'Lockheed Martin' are desperate to flood the Indian market with F-16s. The manufacturers are promising a much bigger and a better deal with 126 fighter planes at the cost of Rs 42,000 crores. They also promise that the F-16s for India, will be far better planes and more advanced than Pakistan's F-16s.

Since 1982 when Pakistan got its first F-16, it's been an uneasy relationship with the US based manufacturers. For political reasons, many aircrafts were not even delivered but just weeks ago, the Pentagon has cleared the sale of an additional 18 planes - this would indeed prove to be a huge boost to Pakistan.

Who commands the skies?

F-16
Pakistan has 32; can carry nuke warheads
India has none

Sukhoi
Pakistan has none
India has 45; can carry nuke warheads

Mirage
India has 51 Mirage 2000s
Pakistan has several old Mirage 3

F-16: On the flipside

30-yr-old planes
Pakistan has them too

Of Pakistan's 415 combat aircraft, 32 are F-16s and that too, many of them are ageing.

India has double the amount of Pakistan's combat aircraft, 825 to be precise but many of them, particularly the MIG 21s are fairly ancient. India though, boasts of some very new Sukhoi-30s, posessing 45 of them in all.

To describe 51 Mirage 2000s, would be to recount of a generation old fighter planes but still very potent and active, and yards newer than Pakistan's Mirage 3.

So will India buy the F-16? It is one of the six planes India is considering to make a deal for. F16 is the most tried and tested one, it is is 30 years old and most importantly, Pakistan is in possession of these planes. During war when soldiers have seconds to identify friends from foe, having the same plane could make things difficult.

 

[Imran Khan]

this news we lisen more then 5 years before but until now there is no deal don .i think india want to stop our f 16 like when we inter any deal they will go and show intrst .same merage2000 thyphoon and refale now f16 also .they know that 30 years old f16 wich in pak also go for MLU not they good for IAF.

 

[solid snake]

India will probably go for the F-18, since twin engine is a requirement for them. Even if they do buy the newer F-16s, we'll go for something that counter's it's abilities. We're just waiting to see which plane they pick.

 

[Imran Khan]

pak not afford to buy more then j10 jf17 f16 we also no need to pay too much price for this .these planes fill full our defence needs. why we afard for they

 

[Joodi]

the lockheed martin is pushing hard to attract indian for the MRCA deal, but chances are not bright, despite all LM efforts.

 

[yarmook]

Its an old discussion isnt it ???

I reckon more of the fighting has been transformed in to electronic fighting. I personally feel the cobra maneuvers of Sukhoi becomes useless against high tech electronic avoinics in the advesary planes. Thats the reason PAF is trying hard to get good suites of electronic kits for there JF-17.

The air war has almos been tranformed in to some thing electronic fighting, no more eye to eye dog fights.

 

[Myth_buster_1]

Eventually they will opt for new mig-29s..

 

[Imran Khan]

there is some kind of prob with india for chose of fighter they goes every were in world .am i right?

 

[Energon]

Eventually they will opt for new mig-29s..

I think the chances of the Mig35 winning the MRCA competition are next to nil at this point. The US consortiums Boeing and LM will have the best chance followed by Dassault's Rafale.

 

[EagleEyes]

What makes you think that MiG-35 will not win?

As far as the topic is concerned.

Pakistan is all prepared to handle the MRCA contract with its JF-17s and growing number of F-16s. They will all be fitted with advanced missiles and radars guided by the concept of AEW&Cs. In the light of MRCA, numbers of J-10 will surpass to more than 60+ in the future (again they too fitted with advanced radars and different types of missiles).

 

[BATMAN]

I think the chances of the Mig35 winning the MRCA competition are next to nil at this point. The US consortiums Boeing and LM will have the best chance followed by Dassault's Rafale.

US is new to your stick and carrot approach where as others are tired of it.
I really doubt that your order will surpas any number above 100.
Its is just an attempt to milk the contractors with false hopes.

Interesting would be to see the eventual response from Russia once they are dropped out.

 

[su-47]

the russians shouldnt complain. we have already filled their coffers with deals. and they are giving us bullsh*t in return. delay on gorshkov, cost increases, dropping out of multirole transport aircraft. if they are going to be so unreliable, we'll choose other business partners. gone are the days when (for india) it was either their way or the highway.

we still have a lot of respect for the russians and we would love to do business with them. but respect should be mutual. problem is that a lot of time they dont respect our needs.

 

[Titanium]

I think the chances of the Mig35 winning the MRCA competition are next to nil at this point. The US consortiums Boeing and LM will have the best chance followed by Dassault's Rafale.

Only fool can go for F-16, when you have LCA, Which is ...
Light combat aircraft: India's finest achievement.

is one of only six such aircraft types in the world — the others being the F/A-22, the Typhoon, Rafale, Gripen and the Japanese F-2.

Whereas your F-16 is nothing but .........yeah read it you.........

Amazingly, LCA may also have the very lowest flyaway (or initial purchase) cost of any current combat aircraft. Estimates range from as low as $20 million to about $35 million. By contrast, the 3+ generation F-16 had a flyaway cost of $55 million about two years ago — and could be even higher today. While a precise figure has yet to be worked out, LCA is sure to be the lowest-cost fourth-generation combat aircraft in the world, by a handsome margin.

 

[JEFF]

In my opinion, selection of MRCA depends upon who is gona provide a favouriable term in terms of complete TOT and offset policy. On the top of that Russian may have assumes that there Mig-35 would never gona shortlisted for MRCA and hence they are now fuming there anger in form of cancellation of MTA as well as several other delays as the speed at which collabration that has been taking place between Boeing and Lokheed Martin with their indian counterpart like HAL and all other private players like TATA, Mahindra etc. russia has completely convinced about their denial.

If US offers complete TOT for APG-79 then F-18 might definetly gona selected for this round thaugh. F-16 would never gona selected as IAF is looking for generation increment rather then upgradation increment.

 

[Titanium]

If US offers complete TOT for APG-79 then F-18 might definetly gona selected for this round thaugh. F-16 would never gona selected as IAF is looking for generation increment rather then upgradation increment.

Nice presumption and assumptions......but would really like to know the generation difference............