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The widening gap between Indian and Chinese air power

ashok321

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https://www.orfonline.org/research/the-widening-gap-between-indian-and-chinese-air-power/

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As the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continues to undertake significant organizational and modernization reforms to build a military that is “built to fight,” in line with President Xi Jinping’s recent rhetoric at the 19th Party Congress, asymmetric inequalities between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) are set to widen. In the backdrop of contentious Sino-Indian relations, especially after the Doklam standoff, the advancing capabilities of the PLAAF pose a range of threats to India in a conflict scenario, particularly given China’s newly-acquired readiness for combat operations and improved combined arms capability. If the IAF is to attain the capability to counter and fight any future informatized war or conflagration vis-à-vis the PLAAF, New Delhi must re-evaluate its existing and future air combat capability.

Rise of the PLAAF and its threat to India
Since the 1990s, the PLAAF has made impressive strides in its capabilities through investments in tactical aviation. For instance, China started acquiring a small number of fourth-generation fighters in 1996. Current estimates peg the number of fourth-generation aircraft with the PLAAF as around 700, with a combination of J-10s, J-11s, Su-27s, and the potent Su-30 MKK multirole fighter jets, the latter of which is comparable in performance and capability to IAF’s Su-30 MKI. These aircraft represent significant progress in China’s air combat capability, while the IAF continues to struggle with a significant number of obsolete second- and third-generation aircraft like the MIG-21 and 23.

Furthermore, China’s progress in upgrading its air combat capability has also been considerable in terms of the expansion of its variety of air-to-air missiles. It has now begun fielding the extended range radar-guided PL-15, giving it the ability to threaten targets at high ranges. This will influence how India regards its future threat environment and impact how the IAF operates force multipliers like air-to-air refueling tankers and Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems (AEW&C), since both will be at risk from Chinese long-range missiles like the PL-15.

The PLAAF views stealth technology “as a core capability in its transformation from a predominantly territorial air force to one capable of conducting both defensive and offensive operations,” according to the U.S. Department of Defense. The induction of the J-20A low observable aircraft, China’s first fifth-generation fighter jet, represents the evolution of this threat to the IAF. As this author has argued elsewhere, the J-20’s radar-evading properties could give China the capability to carry out low-observable strikes inside Indian airspace in the opening phase of a conflict. And due to years of chronic underfunding and slow-movingdefense procurement, the IAF is not equipped to effectively deal with such a challenge.

China’s ability to attack critical Indian military targets while evading the latter’s defensive firing is also worrisome for New Delhi. Indeed, many analysts believe that the IAF has a geographic advantage vis-à-vis the PLAAF in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), as the rarefied air limits Chinese weapons payload capacities. However, as Air Vice Marshal (retd) Arjun Submramaniam has argued, the ability of the latest variant of the Chinese-built H-6 bomber to carry six DH-10 cruise missiles—each with a range of around 1,500 km and a combat radius of 1,800 km—means that “Chinese stealth fighters and bombers do not need to become airborne from airfields in Tibet and can launch their cruise missiles on critical Indian military targets from well outside any kind of air defense umbrella the IAF can put in place over the next decade.”

Finally, recent Chinese organizational military reforms also give the PLAAF an edge over the IAF. One rather simple reform undertaken by the PLA at the 2015 Work Conference on Reform of the Central Military Commission was to reduce the number of theater command air forces in line with the establishment of five theater commands overall for the PLA. Due to this improvement, in the event of hostilities with India over the land boundary, the PLA would control all operations, including air operations, through the newly-created Western Theater Command. This means that the PLAAF will have the upper hand in facilitating joint force combat operations, especially when compared to India’s three Army Commands and three Air Force Commands that need to be brought to bear in the event of conflict with China.

Struggles of the IAF
The IAF will continue to face serious challenges up to at least 2030. The shrinking military budget comes at a time when aging legacy fleets comprising of Mig-21 and Mig-27 aircraft require urgent replacement. The IAF’s acquisition of the Rafale and induction of the indigenously-built Tejas will take time to translate into any tangible operational capability. The Tejas continues to face developmental, induction, and build quality issues, with Hindustan Aeronautics far from achieving its delivery targets for the aircraft. Additionally, India recently pulling out of its 11-year collaborative program with Russia to build a fifth generation fighter aircraft will have ramifications for its depleting combat aircraft numbers and aspirations to operate fifth generation aircraft in the near future.

MiG.jpg

MiG fighters of Indian Air Force
The IAF’s fleet of aging combat aircraft, including the numerically dominant fleet of its many Su-30 MKIs, has few answers to China’s stealth aircraft like the J-20A. Any stealth aircraft will always have the capability to avoid detection by the Su-30MKI at very long ranges, and can take positions to either avoid or engage it under the best possible attack parameters.

Given this underlying challenge, though India seems intent on bolstering its numbers of combat aircraft, it is unlikely such a decision would sufficiently bridge the gap between India and China’s air capabilities. As this author has argued earlier on South Asian Voices, considering the widening gap with the PLAAF, it is important for the IAF to consider the core reasons for the acquisition of new combat aircraft. Given the current decline in number of aircraft, the IAF will become hard pressed to deliver on traditional operational roles like air defense, close air support, and strike capabilities in the future.

Can India realistically match China?

Going forward, India cannot realistically counter Chinese air power without becoming imaginative with its budget constraints. In this scenario, it seems intuitive that India must consider a broader range of options beyond the acquisition of 110 new fighter aircraft, which is better suited for its combat requirements and fleet standardization. One potential short-term alternative is to acquire an additional mix of up-to-date Su-30 MKI and a second batch of Rafales while accelerating the development of the indigenous Tejas with requisite enablers like air-to-air refuelers (AARs) and AEW&Cs. The IAF should also prioritize updating existing fourth generation fighters with high-speed standoff weaponry and electronic warfare capabilities, all of which will be key to survivability and expanding capabilities vis-à-vis threats from Chinese combat aircraft and air defense systems.
 
PL-15 has a maximum speed of Mach 4 and is reported to achieve a standoff range of 300 km. In comparison, its predecessor PL-12 has a range of 100 km, similar to its Western counterpart, the AIM-120C AMRAAM. According to Chinese reports, the PL-15 will enable the PLAAF to down enemy high-value assets such as tankers and AEW aircraft, beyond the engagement range of their escorts.

India has nothing to match PL-15, hence the dead meat dropping from air situation would prevail.
 
However, as Air Vice Marshal (retd) Arjun Submramaniam has argued, the ability of the latest variant of the Chinese-built H-6 bomber to carry six DH-10 cruise missiles—each with a range of around 1,500 km and a combat radius of 1,800 km—means that “Chinese stealth fighters and bombers do not need to become airborne from airfields in Tibet and can launch their cruise missiles on critical Indian military targets from well outside any kind of air defense umbrella the IAF can put in place over the next decade.”


India is no match any which way.

Pffrrfftt...

you post the article as if there was ever a comparison between the PLAAF and iaf!

Ask bragging Modians first as to what they say.
Then come back to me.
 
India is no match any which way.



Ask bragging Modians first as to what they say.
Then come back to me.
Yeah not in the mood of hearing their details about there supa dupa secret weapons built on vedic tiknalajy!
 
Aha!


QUOTE:

Last year, I asked Admiral Harry Harris, then the Commander of the US Pacific Forces, what stopped Beijing from sailing an aircraft carrier-led battle-group into the Indian Ocean. ''There's nothing to prevent them from sailing in the Indian Ocean today'' is what the Admiral told me. His words could be prophetic. Any day now, China will begin sea trials of its first indigenously built aircraft carrier, a 70,000-ton warship whose construction began in November 2013. By contrast, the keel of India's Vikrant (named after India's first aircraft carrier), was laid in February 2009, and though she was sailed out for the first time in in 2011, completion of the project may not take place before 2023.







Aha!


QUOTE:

So is it too late for India to maintain a robust military posture against China? That has less to do with the capability of the Indian Armed forces, some of the world's best trained and most experienced, and more to do with India's serpentine process to acquire new weaponry, a process that is clearly in shambles. In a briefing to the Prime Minister late last year, the Minister of State for Defence, Dr. Subhash Bhamre, said India's weapons-buying is frequently crippled by "multiple and diffused structures with no single point accountability, multiple decision-heads, duplication of processes, delayed comments, delayed execution, no real-time monitoring, no project-based approach and a tendency to fault-find rather than to facilitate."




There are few in the air force who serious believe that if push came to shove, India would be able to sustain, let alone win, a two-front war against China and is ally Pakistan.

Till then, engaging with the dragon economically and politically isn't just the wise option. It's the only one.

I am sure we are finished with the story of "Moron Modi and his Doklam bulldozers"
 
PL-15 has a maximum speed of Mach 4 and is reported to achieve a standoff range of 300 km. In comparison, its predecessor PL-12 has a range of 100 km, similar to its Western counterpart, the AIM-120C AMRAAM. According to Chinese reports, the PL-15 will enable the PLAAF to down enemy high-value assets such as tankers and AEW aircraft, beyond the engagement range of their escorts.

India has nothing to match PL-15, hence the dead meat dropping from air situation would prevail.
Read about ks 172 novator, iaf has been using this missile for quite sometime, it has a range of 400 km
India invested in this project in 2004, and it has a joint venture like brahmos
 
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Read about ks 172 novator, iaf has been using this missile for quite sometime, it has a range of 400 km
India invested in this project in 2004, and it has a joint venture like brahmos

Do you you have a source for that? That the IAF has been using it for some time? As far as I'm aware, it has not been inducted into the IAF yet.
 
Read about ks 172 novator, iaf has been using this missile for quite sometime, it has a range of 400 km
India invested in this project in 2004, and it has a joint venture like brahmos

If true Novator is still only a defensive weapon, not an effective deterrent vis-a-vis China. India needs to point a few Tactical nukes towards Chinese bases in Tibet. :angry:
 
If true Novator is still only a defensive weapon, not an effective deterrent vis-a-vis China. India needs to point a few Tactical nukes towards Chinese bases in Tibet. :angry:
Its an aerial tanker and aewacs killer
I know it's not a deterrent
Its comparable to pl15
 
Read about ks 172 novator, iaf has been using this missile for quite sometime, it has a range of 400 km
India invested in this project in 2004, and it has a joint venture like brahmos

That shik did not go through as planned due to some reasons, prime reason being it defied MTCR Cat-I guideline of its range which exceeded beside the funding issue.

IAF does not have this luxury.
 

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PLAAF is miles more powerful. They can build their own war planes from strategic bombers to 5th gen fighter aircraft. India can only build the junk Tejas which took 50 years to develop.
 
That shik did not go through as planned due to some reasons, prime reason being it defied MTCR Cat-I guideline of its range which exceeded beside the funding issue.

IAF does not have this luxury.
MTCR guidelines never stopped us from acquiring Brahmos missile ,its true range was kept a secret it is actually about 800 km
Now we are a member ,and you will see they will reveal it someday
 

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