India needs about 200-250 Rafales to maintain edge: Outgoing IAF chief Arup Raha

[royalharris]

why need so many rafales? Don't waste your money, cute neighours

 

[kaykay]

I think what he meant is another fighter aircraft production line beside Tejas. GripenE/F-16 IN will fulfil that requirement.

 

[abc123xyx]

ET Defence Bulletin: India needs 250 more Rafale jets

Happy to see Ignorant Indians contradicting their own departing IAF chief ..

very difficult to judge by names ,..... who is a indian on pdf....very confussing...

ashok321.....who could have thought will be a non-indian

 

[INDIAPOSITIVE]

Indian Air Force Pushes For 200-250 More Medium Weight Combat Jets

India is staring at a startling shortage of combat jets to fight two front wars with Pakistan and China. The current strength of the Indian Air Force is 34 squadrons (18-20 aircraft per squadron) as against the estimated requirement of 42 squadrons for a two-front war.

India to Fine Airlines for Mid-Air Dumping of Human Excreta New Delhi (Sputnik) – The Indian Air Force has once again sought more medium weight combat aircraft in its fleet strength but is happy with the support from home-grown Tejas and Sukhoi 30MKI to the forces in light and heavy combat category respectively. “Rafale is tremendously capable in its entire role. It is a multi-role aircraft and can be used very effectively. It can prove its worth in any situation. But we have just ordered 36 aircraft and we require more aircraft in this middle weight category to give the entire spectrum of capability," said the outgoing IAF Chief Arup Raha during a farewell interaction here. Raha indicated the need for 200-250 medium weight combat aircraft in next five to 10 years but would like them to be manufactured in India. He said the file for selecting another aircraft for the IAF is presently under examination by the Ministry of Defense.

Adding that India has enough Russian-origin Sukhoi-30 MKI heavyweight combat aircraft, Raha said, “We are still inducting Sukhoi-30s; it will last us for another 40 years. The Light Combat Aircraft (Tejas) will fill some void in the lightweight category.”

On September 23, India had signed an $ 8.85 billion deal with France to purchase 36 Rafale combat aircraft after 18 months of negotiations. The deliveries will commence in September 2019 and will be completed in April 2022. The manufacturer Dassault Aviation has promised 50 years’ product support. Earlier in year 2015, India had cancelled a 126 combat aircraft tender in which the Dassault had emerged the winner. Under the new contract, Dassault will make India-specific changes to the aircraft and mount missiles as per the IAF's requirements: beyond visual range (BVR) air-to-air Meteor, short and medium range air-to-air MICA and precision guided air-to-ground SCALP missiles. India is staring at a startling shortage of combat jets to fight two front wars with Pakistan and China. The current strength of the Indian Air Force is 34 squadrons (18-20 aircraft per squadron) which are far below the required strength of 42 squadrons suggested by an Indian Parliamentary panel for two front wars.

Read more: [URL]https://sputniknews.com/asia/201612281049076058-indian-air-force/[/URL]
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201612281049076058-indian-air-force/
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201612281049076058-indian-air-force/
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201612281049076058-indian-air-force/

 

[MULUBJA]

Underlining that the teeth of any air force is the combat fleet, Raha said that the country needs another production line besides the Tejas.

Outgoing IAF chief Arup Raha on Wednesday made it clear that just 36 Rafale fighter jets would not suffice as India needs about 200-250 more fighters to maintain its combat edge over adversaries. The Air Chief Marshal, who is set to retire on December 31, also rued that the tender for the much needed “force multiplier” mid air refuellers had to be withdrawn. He said a fresh tender is in the offing and the procurement will be speeded up.

Underlining that the teeth of any air force is the combat fleet, Raha said that the country needs another production line besides the Tejas. He explained that the strength sanctioned by the government is 42 squadrons “which was a numerical value. He said what is needed “is also a capability mix”.

Raha said India has enough of heavy weight fighters – the Su30 MKI – which will last for another 30-40 years. He said the light weight spectrum would be served by the 123 Tejas light combat aircraft ordered by the IAF. Terming Rafale as an excellent aircraft, Raha said it comes in the medium weight spectrum.

“It is tremendously capable in all its role. It is a multi-role aircraft and can be used very effectively. It can prove its worth in any situation,” Raha said.

“But we have just ordered 36 aircraft and we require more aircraft in this middle weight category to give entire spectrum of capability,” he said. Raha said a void has been created in the past because of obsolescence and many of the squadrons will be past their use-by date.

“We have already used them for four decades plus. It is time to retire them and get new aircraft,” he said adding thi void has to be filled up quickly and 36 Rafale aircraft “will not do as we require much more”.

“Over the next 10 years, we must have 200-250 aircraft. It has to be balanced out. In the heavy weight spectrum, we have enough. But in the medium weight category, we need to have more. Yes, about 200 will be very good,” he said.

India and France finally signed the Rafale deal on September 23 this year, over a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the deal during his Paris visit in April 2015. The planes, equipped with latest weapons and tailored for Indian needs, will be delivered to the IAF between September 2019 and April 2022. The IAF currently has 33 fighter squadrons, against the sanctioned 42.

Raha also rued that IAF’s Russian-origin Ilyushin-78 tanker fleet was plagued by maintenance problems and more midair refuellers were a “strategic requirement” to extend the range of fighter planes.

IL-78 fleet had served the IAF well but its availability for missions has been less due to maintenance problems. India floated a global tender for six midair refuellers in 2007 but it has been scrapped twice in the final stages.

“Sadly, there have been some problem areas in the acquisition. A new tender will be out soon,” Raha said. The air chief said the terrorist attack on the Pathankot air base and the An-32 crash in which 29 people were killed were “the worst memories of my career”.

“We have flown in the fighter fleet 40,000 hrs, more than last 10 years due to better serviceability. We have done an average night flying of 27 per cent which was less earlier,” he said speaking about the achievements under his tenure.



http://indianexpress.com/article/in...in-edge-outgoing-iaf-chief-arup-raha-4448992/

Indian government has carried out an excellent negotiation with France to tailor the plane according to indian requirement and specially using Indian weapon and change in EW suit spectra. Now any new plane inducted will cost around 80 to 90 mn USD as all India specific changes are already covered in 36 rafale negation. We must focus on making a tejas a mighty plane which can perform most of rafale’s roles. We can do that in MK2. We can make MK2's radar as good as rafale so as EW suite and RAW performance and range shall also be in same category though about 20% less. It will carry a huge weapon load and maneuver like rafale. I do not think that so much of rafale are required but certainly we can induct few more make in India rafale.

 

[Smiling Buddha]

Happy to see Ignorant Indians contradicting their own departing IAF chief ..

You are not an indian thats for sure then why are you using a false flag and fake user name, is that allowed on this forum?