well china Wont Sell YOu JFT so that is out of the Question I dont know Why the LCA is NOt Here Yet statement Because it claims to have more then 10000 Hours of Flight and all the weapons test which leads me to beilve that the LCA is just a Bragging Right Comparison with Chinese JFT and Sure You can Buy Gripen Which is also light years ahead of Mig 21 and mig27 in terms of Capabilities and lethality Now Considering LCA and Gripen you can buy Same numbers of Jets as M2k seems to be better stratigically because when your upgrading these m2k they will be out of commision Leaving IAF nothing But mig21/mig27/mig29/su30 well in case of su-30 you are limited because only 2000 flight hours are reserved before engine PMD(preventive maintianance ) SO then you are Left with Mig21/mig 27/mig 29 and Jaguars as Nuclear Strike Fighters
SO I guess the String Pullers of IAF are Cutting IAF Strings and Making it weak Because if this upgrade goes in Only MIg 29 will be the IAF's Back bone with unrelieabilty of mig21 and mig 27 as you seen in kargil and Su 30 will Only be a Weekend Warrior for 1hour or so
Better option would Be IF LCA is TRUE infact with 10000 Test Flight Hours and it would support local INdustry or Gripen but IAF not opting For LCA in Hugh Numbers shows some thing fishy about the Program
and how many m2k are in service
are their more then 100
Hi,
Your analysis have certain flaws which I would like to note..Su 30 MKI is a weekend fighter??
The PM for MKI is not 2000 hours, it was for the initial off the shelf bought su30 Ks..MKIs PM hours are higher than that..
Even if it is the case, with close to 250 MKIs I simply don't see, how it will become a weekend fighter..??
With the Kind of Armaments and penetration range, even if it performs as a weekend fighter like u said, it is enough to cause Havocs in the enemy's camp..
Coming to your second point, during Kargil, Mig 27s developed a technical snag, due to High altitude bombing and when the mig27 went down it went down due to the compressor malfunction due to lack of air pressure at that much high altitude and the Mig21 was shot down by stingers, because the Mig21 went inside the range of stingers to purposefully divert the attention of MANPADS from the Mig27 which was on a bombing run and hence was shot..Once they identified the Mig27s snag, they grounded it and developed a new strategy..That was the story of kargil..
But today's Bisons, atleast some 60 of them were upgraded to Bison Standards and are still a potent opponent to anything the enemy can field in, atleast they can cover the bombing units effectively with the KOPYO radar and R27 BVR enabled Bison upgrade..The Mig21s you were quoting are Fishbeds not bisons..
And coming to the LCA point u have made, LCA has crossed well over 10000 flight hours but it is a combined flight hours and not that of a single prototype..Weapon trials, high altitude bombing trials were all completed to the satisfaction of Airforce..
Fielding of LCA within an year is a done decision by IAF after looking at the High altitude engine performance, because earlier IAF was worried about the Thrust produced by LCA..But it has now exceeded what IAF expected..Atleast with the current GE414 engine..
So, as you've quoted, IAF is not out of options, with the current sqns of Bisons, Floggers, Fulcrums, MKIs and Jaguars IAF is very much capable of bringing down anything our adversary can put in the air and also capable of bombing..
IAF's current whistle blowing is only aimed at china..Even china is not considered as an imminent threat, but just to make sure that we wont have another 1962 these whistle blowings and upgradations are going on..
IAFs requirement of atleast 38 Sqns is aimed at fighting a two front war not just a one side war..
Hence as we speak, M2k upgradation has already happened and it is not just for the upgradation of weapons but to create assembly lines for producing similar components that can be used in Rafale as well..
IAF is not dumb to invest such a huge amount in just upgradaing this 20 year old fighter..
Thanks