The IAF’s Fleet Strength Is Depleting Fast, But Su-30MKI Is Flying To The Rescue

[Archie]

Neither rafale & f18 have the reach of su27 family fighters. If we want to do a strike mission in China(mainland China not Tibet) with a decent load we should go for su34.

Bhai
We are already inducting 270 Su30MKI
And HAL will start upgrading the MKI @ 30 a year, Once the production ends
The upgraded MKI will match the Su35 in performance , avionics and Radar, but not in RCS
We will also induct 60-127 FGFAs

In my opinion, that's enough Heavy Twin engined fighters

IAF has said that it needs 80 mmrca class fighters to actually fill the gap

 

[bdslph]

easily India should have introduced more mig29 mig35 su30mki or su34 35

 

[Dash]

Then he should quit and let a competent man handle the affairs.

Its a cumulative outcome of his and his ancestors. Including our military planners including civil ones. Why blame him only?

 

[kaykay]

I don't think IAF's sqd strength will go below current 33-35 sqds. Though I don't see it increasing anytime soon too( but its getting better capability wise with every replaced squadron).

 

[ANPP]

Hi,

IAF has had thier way, it did not see expansion of Mirage, or Jaguar or the Mig29, but it saw expansion in MKI. The point being as simple as price to capability ratio that MKI brings is immense. y.
Compare an IAf fleet with 100 MKI and 126 Mirages, instead of 55 mirages and 272 MKI - and see the difference yourself. Serviceability issue is only partly due to Russia's after sales support, it has a lot to do with the way we manage our own BRD's. I have seen firsthand what BRD's have done to the Mig29's and let me assure you we are to be equally blamed. You don't hear the chinese crying every day about there russian platforms, because they know how to manage there fleet, if they don't get a system from russia, they maintain an entire warehouse of pack stock spares and consumables. We on the other hand have the expectations of paying lada and expecting 5 series support.

Anyways, MoD is handling this in a terrible way, I just read that capex is 40% underutilized or something to that effect. So infact policy paralysis remain in effect despite regime change.... what a shame.


Then he should quit and let a competent man handle the affairs.

India is not the only one which complain of Russian supply chain. Talking about China, really how many news are there in air which you heard from China? Our Mig29 fleet was grounded for years not months just because Russians were not supplying item even after payments. How can you expect from IAF to maintain whole fleet just on scraps?
About MKI fleet, yes it is very large. We never ever in history operate so many heavy fighters at once.That costs alot to IAF by money as well as by man! This is because we failed at Mirag. We had to upgrade Mig27 and had to purchase more Jaguar just to fill the gap which this deal created.

And the guy who say that we dont buy British fighters. Bro! Jaguar came to from Britain.

 

[MilSpec]

India is not the only one which complain of Russian supply chain. Talking about China, really how many news are there in air which you heard from China? Our Mig29 fleet was grounded for years not months just because Russians were not supplying item even after payments. How can you expect from IAF to maintain whole fleet just on scraps?
About MKI fleet, yes it is very large. We never ever in history operate so many heavy fighters at once.That costs alot to IAF by money as well as by man! This is because we failed at Mirag. We had to upgrade Mig27 and had to purchase more Jaguar just to fill the gap which this deal created.

And the guy who say that we dont buy British fighters. Bro! Jaguar came to from Britain.

I have never said we don't buy fighters from Britian, I just said I hate the performance of Jaguar. rest of it for you to read. I know the build quality of Jaguar, people who know me here, know my views on the Jaguar.

Next about Mig29, It is absolute B.S that we don't get parts that we paid for. The lead time for procurement is very high for russian sub-systems including the ones on MKI and Mig29 because of the consolidation of systems they have, that has been known to India from day one, of operating Fishbeds. The point I am trying to make is rather that reactive idea of maintaining minimal stock to show how nice operating margins are, we should be maintaining a huge stock of consumables and spares and take a hit on unfinished stock metrics, it is completely worth it . An obscure example of platform with an burnt alternator coil on the genset, IAF ordered it after we found the issue, it took 2 months for BRD to order it, and another 3 months for russia to order and 2 more months to install, the unit sat on the hanger for a good 8 months. Your guess is as good as mine what the outcome would have been if spares were available off hand.
On MKI's P3 of ToT involved replacement of PII components with Indian made subsytems, most in HAL know what kind of clusterfu(k was done to that project, So it's easy to blame Russians, without any introspection. Btw british AJT's sat due to lack of parts for about 3 years in banglore, on flipside ask the Ecuadorians how well we did with providing spares for ALH's, it will become very evident who the weak link is.
If brd's cannot manage MRO stores, they have no business to be in maintenance of 100k assembly part equipment. I will call a turd when i see it, and I really don't care who subscribes to my view and who doesn't. If you feel we are doing an amazing job and Russia is screwing us,then good for ya... Man.