Khan vilatey
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Well for starters, India is getting a BVRAAM with the longest no-escape zone of any commercially available AAM today. We don't know how much this NEZ actually is, but the fact that the Meteor is making its way as a standard AAM in UK, Germany, France, Sweden, and now South Korea, we should be weary.
Second, the Rafale is a superb strike asset. The Indians can carry out stand-off range strikes using ALCMs and guided, rocket-assisted PGBs (for low-value targets). Yes, we have the capability too, but the fact that India will have it means that our ground-based assets along the LoC are under threat.
Third, the Rafale brings an excellent ECM capability. Yes, the F-16s and JF-17s have ECM too, fair, but we have yet to deploy a fleet-wide AESA radar. So, our radars are at risk of getting jammed, while India's Rafales won't have as much trouble (thanks to the RBE2 AESA radar).
Fourth, India is going to get its 36 Rafales a bit sooner than the PAF will get its 50-odd JF-17 Block-IIIs. We are still waiting for the first 2 units. Never mind the fact that we have yet to integrate weapons to the Block-III.
Now, I get we hear a lot of self-assuring FB posts about PL-15 or other mystery Chinese AAMs with long ranges, but these aren't facts. These are guesses at best, and hopes at worst.
I agree. We don't have to get Rafale/Typhoon to match India's Rafale purchase. For the $$ India is spending on the Rafale, we can do much, much more. However, I fear we lack even that spending power.
In an earlier age, we might have been able to foot an F-16V upgrade, buy 1-2 F-16 Block-72 squadrons, expand the Block-III, and slot in AESA radars for Block-II and JF-17B.
We can probably get all this done for $9 b tops (i.e., a totally new fighter fleet), which isn't a lot if we split it across 5-10 years. It should be doable for a country our size, but we are soooooo criminally mismanaged, that even the minimum isn't possible.
True story, I heard a PAF person say, 'I don't think we need to upgrade Block-II or JF-17B with AESA radars..." Guy knows in his heart that a non-upgrade is BS, he's only talking it up because, sadly, it might be our only option.
this makes little sense dude meteor is an excellent weapon but the stats you are quilting are stats at best. The sad-10 and r-77 are used by all countries with Russian equipment. A ssd-10 is newer it can be assumed that it is comparable to aim-120c. The PL-15 is expected to run somewhere around 180-200 kms with data linkage with our awacs. Meaning in all reality jamming it would be extremely hard before it gets into its NEZ. So far the Indians have failed to jam the sd-10 or aim-120.
now jf-17 are not a strike platform but could be used in this role as demonstrated on feb-27 . H-4 , h-2 and raad provide this capability today.
this means that at 1/3 the cost we not only have the similar capabilities we will expand it more with block 3
Re: PL-15. I'll happily stand corrected with official specifications from the OEM, but otherwise, I'm going to take what our watchers say about it with a grain of salt.
Re: Block-I / Block-II, there's no ETA on when -- or if -- we'll upgrade them with AESA radars. It would make sense to upgrade them (e.g., the LKF601 is apparently easy to integrate to older JF-17 blocks), but no word on it by the PAF. The fact that we opted to take the JF-17B with KLJ-7V2 instead of LKF601E is a little concerning IMHO.
I think Klj-7a was similar in dimension to lfk601e which are both air cooled. I read this on the forum suggest you search. These can be fitted on our blk 2 and to this affect a radar factory was setup in Kamra and an integration facility. This was in the news.
In my opinion the real reason for delay in block 3 is the engine not Avionics or weapons. The Russians are offering their newest rd-93 m3 ( not sure about version) and the Chinese want us to use their ws-10a. The air force would have loved a western engine but settled on the next best thing the Russian engine. Chinese engines require overhaul too soon. Remember when the f-7pg engine overhaul facility was setup and they were able to double the overhaul interval. So this will be sorted soon.
Re: PL-15 ... I'd want a guarantee that the PAF can get an AAM with a comparable NEZ and ECCM as Meteor.
Re: AESA radars ... I'd rather we institute a fleet-wide AESA capability across all 188 JF-17s by 2030. This will give the PAF the flexibility to use each of its fighters in ECM-dense environments (and force India to commit very heavily to exert enough of an advantage over the PAF).
I read on this forum that the pl-15 was being integrated on the block 2 platform As this can be fired with assistance from our awacs. So think we will get this. As far as upgrades to block 3 and 2 is concerned I agree with you but think this as you suggested will be done in a phased approach.
kv