Indian AF, Ministry Clash Over Missile Buy

[Contrarian]

Indian AF, Ministry Clash Over Missile Buy

India’s Air Force and Defence Ministry are clashing over procurement of air-launched anti-ship missiles. Ministry officials complain that only one bidder has been shortlisted, while Air Force leaders claim they are being pressured to accept lesser capabilities.

Boeing’s Harpoon was the only missile among those offered by five competitors that service officials said met their requirements to replace the Sea Eagle anti-ship missiles that arm the Jaguar aircraft fleet.
Because of the single-vendor situation, an Indian Air Force official said, the Defence Ministry has pressured the service to modify its technical requirements and refloat the tender.

The Air Force in October floated a limited global tender to France’s MBDA, Israel’s Rafael, Russia’s Rosoboronexport, and U.S. firms Boeing and Raytheon, seeking to procure unspecified numbers of anti-ship missiles for $100 million.
One of the main technical requirements is that the new missile have a minimum range of 100 kilometers, Air Force officials said. Only the Harpoon met that requirement.
The Defence Ministry recently directed the Air Force to reduce the required range of the anti-ship missile, the service official said — an unheard-of intrusion into Air Force affairs.
However, the service rejected the Defence Ministry’s directives and has stated it will not compromise the qualitative requirements of the new missile, the Air Force official said.

Defence Ministry officials said the procurement has been affected by the single-vendor issue, but they refused to comment further on the retendering controversy.

Sea Eagles are in service with Indian Navy Sea Harriers and Tu-142 maritime reconnaissance aircraft, but the Air Force wants to replace the Sea Eagle to improve its Jaguars’ anti ship capabilities.

The Sea Eagle is a computer-controlled, all-weather, fire-and-forget sea-skimming missile. Its active radar target seeker has a 110-kilometer range. The missile can disable warship electronics with jamming and countermeasures, the Air Force official said.

The service plans to buy new-generation, long-range anti-ship missiles to increase its firepower in littoral warfare, a Defence Ministry official said. The new missiles, in addition to a long range, should have a fast response to overcome advanced defenses. •
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2635348

 

[Contrarian]

Why the hell are they procuring Antiship missiles when we have BrahMos? And BrahMos has a range of 300 kms, so why do they need another one?

 

[Contrarian]

Oh!
Is it cuz BrahMos can only be launched from Su's? Cuz AF wants them to be launched from Jags as well? And also that BrahMos is very expensive?

Or maybe something is wrong here?

 

[Keysersoze]

Dude I have saying this for ages. There are limitations to "supersonic missiles". They are obviously looking at something new to cover this.

 

[Adux]

Dude I have saying this for ages. There are limitations to "supersonic missiles". They are obviously looking at something new to cover this.

Is that what you deduced out of that article. Apples and oranges my friend.harpoon is a anti-ship missile, America has other Anti-ship Cruise Missile too. So does that mean Cruise missiles are not needed, or they have limitations. It is for two differnet situtations.

Harpoon is lighter though lesser range, can be carried by all fighter types, against brahmos which can be carried by only MIG-29 under its center line or Su-30MKI under its centerline, Wing Hardpoints

 

[Keysersoze]

Is that what you deduced out of that article. Apples and oranges my friend.harpoon is a anti-ship missile, America has other Anti-ship Cruise Missile too. So does that mean Cruise missiles are not needed, or they have limitations. It is for two differnet situtations.

Harpoon is lighter though lesser range, can be carried by all fighter types, against brahmos which can be carried by only MIG-29 under its center line or Su-30MKI under its centerline, Wing Hardpoints

Like I said limitations..........

 

[zeus]

Anti ship missiles are only for jaguar aircraft,and not for Mig-29 ,sukhoi 30 ,Il-38 or TU-142 which will carry Brahmos ,limitation is of Jaguar aircraft that it cannot carry Brahmos it not of limitations of Brahmos

 

[Keysersoze]

Anti ship missiles are only for jaguar aircraft,and not for Mig-29 ,sukhoi 30 ,Il-38 or TU-142 which will carry Brahmos ,limitation is of Jaguar aircraft that it cannot carry Brahmos it not of limitations of Brahmos

Not really....a missile is designed to fit onto platforms that are available not the other way around.

 

[Contrarian]

It desnt make sense. IAF wont buy another type of missiles JUST to fit ONE platform?

 

[Adux]

It desnt make sense. IAF wont buy another type of missiles JUST to fit ONE platform?

Maritime Squadron. Jaguar is Designed for Deep Pentration and SEAD. It does wonders in its role,

Keyser,

I guess you cant carry Brahmos on Cessna, But then again it is the fault of Brahmos. right. you are comparing two different scenarios, just slander a great product like the Brahmos l, simple fact it is in Indian Armed Forces. Bias my friend

 

[Adux]

I cant Believe People over here are comparing Anti-Ship Missile not even Cruise Missile to that of a Supersonic Crusie Missile,

I can understand Tomahawk vs Babur vs Brahmos vs SunBurn
none of these missiles can be compared to Harpoon.

 

[Contrarian]

BrahMos can be, its actually an antiship missile, though there is an LACM version also. So BrahMos vs Harpoon/Exocet is justified.

 

[Adux]

BrahMos can be, its actually an antiship missile, though there is an LACM version also. So BrahMos vs Harpoon/Exocet is justified.

It is an Anti-Ship Missile, yes

Put it this way Aim-9 and AMRAAM-120D are both Air-Air Missile, but they both have different Operational uses.

 

[Contrarian]

Yeah, there's always the cost as well....sasta, bhadiya aur tikau!!
But nevertheless there is the "Russian version of the AIM 9X" in our inventory, why did we need to get Harpoons then. Prolly better.

 

[blain2]

Harpoon is considered a CM by any means, the difference is that it has not been used thus far in any role aside from Ash for which it was built initially. Currently, Harpoon is being produced in such a manner that it can carry payloads of various kinds and type thus giving it the same level of flexibility as the more expensive and larger LACMs like Tomahawk etc. The difference is the range. However the key benfits of the newer blocks of Harpoon are its uncanny resemblence (in terms of performance) to conventional LACMs. The Harpoons can retarget during mid-flight and they can now use terrain mapping and GPS for such accuracy (which is not available with very many AshMs currently) against land (AGM-84E) or littoral targets. The other big benefit of the Harpoon over all of the other conventional AshMs like Exocet (newer blocks of Exocet address this) is their ability to distinguish very clearly between the littoral targets.

So it depends on which version is being acquired. There is plenty of new technology and capability in the Harpoon that conventional CMs cannot match in terms of performance and cost. This is also the reason that Pakistan has ordered another 130 block II Harpoons from the US despite the fact that upgraded Exocets were also on offer in addition to a considerable inventory of C-80x series.