What's new

Indian air force 'lacks planes'

Neo

RETIRED

New Recruit

Joined
Nov 1, 2005
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Indian air force 'lacks planes'



By Nagendar Sharma
BBC News, Delhi

3cc36a684fc6164e295b83ba0f266489.gif



a9767cbe281bc3b5e0ab783098d37340.jpg
Only half the fleet is available at any given time

Nearly 20% of Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots are doing desk jobs because of a shortage of planes, the BBC has learnt.
Classified documents seen by the BBC show that in all about a third of the IAF's 2,500 pilots have been assigned ground and administrative duties.
Of these, 450 fit and trained pilots simply lack planes, the documents say.


Growing numbers of IAF pilots have been refused permission to quit in recent months. The Indian Air Force had "no comment" on the BBC's findings.


The IAF has about 790 aircraft in total, including 340 fighter planes.
Only half the fleet is available at any given time while the rest are being serviced, the documents show.
By 2010 the air forces' transport fleet will be reduced by nearly 40%.


The IAF, which currently has 34 squadrons, plans to reduce that number to 28 by 2013.


Poor utilisation


Some of the pilots put on ground and administrative jobs by the force spoke to the BBC.
They said the jobs they had been given contradicted claims by senior officials that pilots who wanted to leave the IAF could not do so as it would create a shortage of pilots.
"Whatever the authorities might say, the fact is that the air force is overstaffed in terms of pilots," one of the pilots, who has served in the IAF for 15 years, told the BBC.
This was despite the IAF spending millions of rupees on pilot training, he said.

Another serving pilot with more than a decade of service said: "In every air force station, you would find fully competent and medically fit pilots posted to various ground administrative jobs.
"The average utilisation rate of pilots in terms of flying hours per month is very low, as much as five to six hours a month," he added.

Earlier this year, the chief of the Indian Air Force told the BBC he was aware that some pilots wanted to leave his force, although he said the numbers were much lower than reported.
Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi put it down to India's booming civil aviation industry and the lucrative salaries being offered by commercial airlines.

The air chief marshal said he did not begrudge the high salaries being offered to his pilots by private airlines. But he said he could not release pilots unless they were not required by the IAF.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5094234.stm
 
Wow tell me something new

The Indian airforce really needs to get its act together. The IAF has real poor coordination and reaction time than the PAF.

The PAF can get its whole fighter force in the air in war time the IAF would probaly take weeks or days at max 10 hours
 
I'm quite surprised to learn about the desperate state the IAF is in and would like to have a serious debate with Indian guests to get a realistic picture.

On every forum I visit I find the IAF being presented in superlative terms, i.e. best fighters, best pilots, best readiness, best reaction time, best flying hours and a lot more of 'bests', yet the author draws a complete other picture based on some confidential report.

Another question is how capeable is a combat fighter when he gets to 5-6 hours per month??? :disappointed:
 
A couple of months ago there was news of a pilot boycott and protest in the IAF where many IAF pilots left. Its not only the IAF's problem but the whole Indian military's problem. The whole Indian military needs to get its act togther
 
Kaiser,

Brahministan is not one of the official names of India nor does it exist in any of our Pakistani languages.
Please avoid using the term as it might annoy Indian members here.
I haven't had complaints yet, so I'm not editing the post but would appreciate it if you edited it yourself. ;)

Thanks!

Neo
 
Kaiser said:
A couple of months ago there was news of a pilot boycott and protest in the IAF where many IAF pilots left. Its not only the IAF's problem but the whole Indian military's problem. The whole Indian military needs to get its act togther

Where did you read that? I'd like a link. A boycott in the Armed Forces of any country would be called a mutiny and would lead to a court Marshal.

I just read the the BBC article. It says 20% overall drop and "By 2010 the air forces' transport fleet will be reduced by nearly 40%". The transport pilots are the ones looking for jobs in the Civilian sector. I don't see a SU-30 MKI fighter pilot transitioning to flying a bus!

Unfortunately the transport wing has always been somewhat of a "step-child" in the IAF. Dunno why - maybe it's not near as glamorous!!
 
lol... nvm about indian, they just enjoy puffing their IAF.. but when it comes to real combat you would c PAF shooting down IAF mig-21, su-23..... with j-6!!! rofl
 
Neo said:
I'm quite surprised to learn about the desperate state the IAF is in and would like to have a serious debate with Indian guests to get a realistic picture.

If they are that much desperate then the hell on the earth they are not buying them. They have already cancelled the deal with dissault, even not so sure about the future as well.

I think PAF as well has'nt got the good cooridination or a reaction time except couple of squadrons on major bases. I would indeed like to compare it with IAF though. FUN;)
 
There seems to be a mismatch between the number of pilots and planes. The IAF should let some pilots go to the private sector.

sigatoka said:
There seems to be a mismatch between the number of pilots and planes. The IAF should let some pilots go to the private sector.

Well this is all strange, its not a small issue, 1 pilots costs lts of $$$$. why such kind of incident happen at first place. With the country so much popultion these things can happen. but any way its good to have more than less;)

master_fx said:
lol... nvm about indian, they just enjoy puffing their IAF.. but when it comes to real combat you would c PAF shooting down IAF mig-21, su-23..... with j-6!!! rofl

Sorry dude, have no clue what you were trying to say!!!!:rolleyes:

have u ever heard about the first indian pakistani air warfare?

Many IAF pilots have left AF and joining Commercial airlines..........
 
I'll raise the question again: How capeable is a combat fighter when he gets to 5-6 hours per month???
 
I hardly doubt that MKI will be 140+ within 5 years. I know they have plans, sorry, dreams but reality shows that it is usually late and over budget. MKI were planned for around 4 billion. Now they are predicted to be atleast 8 billion. LCA was predicted decades ago. Still is a paperplane. Druv was predicted an export success. Still no one is intrested in it even for free of charge... Main fighter of this so called selfproclaimed poorest and corrupt nation is the original mig21 with BVR upgrade... I don't see why they keep looking towards others but their forces still need fake victories to get medals. State terrorism in Gujarat and Kashmir but pointnig at Pakistan... Somehow with the IT hipe there are many Indians on the net but basicly only arrogant and busy with calling other trolls... Sofar their politicians are not intrested in real peace... And their main activity is paying US congress to get deals done.
 
Neo said:
Indian air force 'lacks planes'



By Nagendar Sharma
BBC News, Delhi

3cc36a684fc6164e295b83ba0f266489.gif


a9767cbe281bc3b5e0ab783098d37340.jpg

The IAF has about 790 aircraft in total, including 340 fighter planes.



Only 340 fighters??:disappointed:
even PAF have more fighters than them. about 400+
 
Arrow said:
Right....

http://www.shephard.co.uk/Rotorhub/Default.aspx?Action=745115149&ID=c8346908-dba2-4220-8c65-444096face08





A math problem perhaps Munir? There are only going to be 125 Bisons left...

Wait, lets see what the PAF relies on...wait, J-7's, Chinese knockoffs of the earlier MiG-21M/F...barely able to squeeze in a ranging radar there, no proper TWS, no BVR, no proper EW suite, no HMCS, no MFD/Proper Nav-attack system...

.
According to my information, IAF have about 220+ Mig21s in their inventory.
http://www.ausairpower.net/IAF-Orbat.html

PAF mainly relies on mirages III/5 and F7s. the F-7PG in PAF have grifo-7 radar(detecting range upto 55km) and can be fitted with SD10 BVR. but right now PAF is BVRless.
 
Back
Top Bottom