Or they could be just pushing the indians to go for the Russian Mig 35 so that they can some how do economies of scale and let india off from paying the extra costs! clever and shrewd, must be a guju working with the russians.

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/the-uaes-f-16-block-60-desert-falcon-fleet-04538/#more

So does this mean India would have to right its own code? This may already have been known or guessed by most people but it the USA would basically control what weapons fighters sold to India could carry.

Yes Brahmos falls withing MTCR but what about future versions?

The UAE’s F-16 Block 60 Desert Falcon Fleet
08-Jan-2008 12:22 | Permanent Link

F-16F “Desert Falcon”

The F-16 has become what its designers intended it to be: a worthy successor to the legendary P-51 Mustang whose principles of visibility, agility, and pilot-friendliness informed its design. It is no exaggeration to call it the defining fighter of its age, the plane that many people around the world think of when they think “fighter.” The aircraft’s ability to handle future adversaries like the thrust-vectoring MiG-29OVT/35 and advanced surface-air missile systems is in question, but upgrades have kept F-16s popular and in production.

The most advanced F-16s in the world, however, are not American. That distinction belongs to the United Arab Emirates, whose F-16 E/F Block 60 are a generation ahead of the F-16 C/D Block 50/52+ aircraft that form the backbone of the US fleet and many others around the world. The Block 60 has been described as a lower-budget alternative to the forthcoming F-35A Joint Strike Fighter – and is being treated as such in countries like India and the Netherlands as they contemplate their future fighter needs. The UAE invested in the type’s development, and with that investment comes inevitable fielding, training, and equipping needs. This DID article showcases the F-16 E/F “Desert Falcon,” and offers a window into associated costs. The latest item is a significant weapons request to equip their fleet…

F16F, F-16E
(click to view full)The F-16 has now undergone 6 major block changes since its inception in the late 1970s, incorporating 4 generations of core avionics, 5 engine versions divided between 2 basic models (P&W F100 and GE F110), 5 radar versions, 5 electronic warfare suites, and 2 generations of most other subsystems. Moore’s Law applies as well, albeit more slowly: the latest F-16’s core computer suite has over 2,000 times the memory and over 260 times the throughput of the original production F-16.

Even so, each advance costs money to develop, integrate, and test. The UAE invested almost $3 billion of its money into research and development for the Desert Falcon. The aircraft’s conformal fuel tanks look a lot like the current Block 50/52 versions at first glance, but carry more fuel and allow a 40% range increase to give the planes a mission radius of 1,025 miles. They will feed GE’s new F110-GE-132 engine, which produces up to 32,500 lbs. of thrust to offset the plane’s increased weight. The engine is a derivative of the proven F110-GE-129, a 29,000-pound thrust class engine that powers the majority of F-16C fighters worldwide.

The Desert Falcons’ most significant changes, however, are electronic. The most important is the Northrtop Grumman AN/APG-80 AESA radar, which made the UAE the first air force in the world besides the USAF to field this revolutionary new radar technology. AESA radars have more power, better range, less sidelobe “leakage,” better reliability and much better combat availability, and more potential capabilities via software improvements than similar mechanically-scanned arrays, like the AN/APG-68v9s that equip the most advanced American and foreign F-16s. Unlike the APG-68s, the APG-80 can perform simultaneous ground and air scan, track, and targeting, and has an “agile beam” that reduces the odds of detection by opposing aircraft when the radar is on. This last feature is important – one pilot has described turning on one’s radar in combat as being similar to turning on a flashlight in a large and dark building.

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MBDA Storm Shadow
launch from Mirage 2000In the course of development, 2 key issues came up with respect to the F-16 Block 60. One was the familiar issue of source code control for key avionics and electronic warfare systems. The other was weapons carriage.

As a rule, the software source codes that program the electronic-warfare, radar, and data buses on US fighters are too sensitive for export. Instead, the USA sent the UAE “object codes” (similar to APIs), which allow them to add to the F-16’s threat library on their own.

The other issue concerned the Black Shahine derivative of MBDA’s Storm Shadow stealth cruise missile. The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) defines 300 km as the current limit for cruise missiles, and the terms of the sale allow the United States to regulate which weapons the F-16s can carry. Since the Black Shahine was deemed to have a range of over 300km, the US State Department refused to let Lockheed Martin change the data bus to permit the F-16E/Fs to carry the missile. It is believed that the Mirage 2000v9 upgrades the UAE has purchased from France will address this issue, giving the UAE a platform capable of handling their new acquisition.

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Those cameras are the very latest tech. Used in industry for such things as monitoring bearings getting hot.
It will be 10 years before that level of tech. is cleared for Air use and used in a Platform…..one hopes it is presently some way into that 10 years. 🙂

Other way around, the flir cameras are very insensitive compared to the military spec stuff, i have seem both and believe me what flir give to you in industry is nothing compared to what other companies can do for military..

you may also want to check out terahertz imaging!

The MMRCA emerged out of an IAF desire for 126 Mirage 2000-5 Mk2, negotiations were under way, then the govt ordered an open contest, dassault then decided that they could not afford to keep the Mirage production line open until the Indians made up their mind so they shut it down.

The initial Mirage idea would have perfect sense and if the existing fleet had been upgraded it would have given the IAF 170+ very capable aircraft of a single type. Now we have the soap opera that is the MMRCA.

its more of a three ring circus where we wait to see what the finalle will be, a synical part of me cant help but think that this will give some one a very nice pension and a condo on mumbais seafront to people.

ho hum..

The Super Hornet would not put India on par with the US. This is the fundamental problem with the MMRCA program, none of the contenders will provide anything that is not already available to India through other projects.

It may not be obvious but if production of the wings spars etc were to be taken done by hal and knowledged gained then in terms of manufacturing production and production development india would be at par with US or atleast at par with the UK or Europe (notice i dont mention japan, as from my ignorant view they are farher than the US in some areas).

That is apart from the Eurofighter or Rafale..Choke cough .. 🙂

But i see what you are saying also..and agree in terms of electronics etc etc.. i am blinder and more ignorant as its not my field…

Somehow I don’t think the integration of french or russian missiles would be an obstacle to the SH purchase. What use would be the SH without the AIM120C-5 or AIM9X? India has enough other platforms to make use of their current missile inventory.

It wont or may not be an obstable but will be a hurdle and one which the current production F/A in its current form is not ready for.

As for the second statement, i totally agree with the failings the shornet has, would good would be 126 6 billion dollars worth of aircraft if and when the US decides it doesnt like the way india buys iranian oil or russian nuclear fuel and decides to embargo us?

And you wake up one morning and find you have 126 aircraft with depleted stocks of missiles that it can fire.

and yes in the near future this does not seem likely but these aircraft will be in indian service for a long time to come.

Plus the idea of having a missile family that our enemy has had intimate knowledge over for a longer period of time than us is makes me shiver.

I see it as a positive the most of the IAF and IN navies missiles can be inter changeable to a degree..

dont think any plane on offer can be accepted as is

If congress has agreed to give india sensitive technology, and even us brits have major trouble getting information from within our own ranks, you have to realise it is with caveats. The f/a 18 shornet avionics will be altered in some way or form to allay the fears of congress this we can garantee or it maybe that the radars are given but the weapon systems that go with them are limited and may require congressional approval for export to india as with most major equipment buys from the US by its CLOSE allies!

So they get money from india return machines and technology that are not state of the art and for all those variables they recieve India on a leash.

No plane in the competition including super hornet is ready for export to india in one way or form.. people really believe India will be given the crown jewels of the USAF when it has the potential to be the next US foe? And lets not beat about the bush here guys, with indias size population and energy needs it will be competing against the US in the future if it wants to lift its population up from the dirt.