A $64,000 question indeed.:)

As for the flying per hour costs are concerned, Gripen IN puts it at <$3000/hr (though I personally was not sure if this included fuel costs???). We have also seen a (somewhat older) figure of $6000-7000/hr for F-16. I remember seeing a brochure (I think it was) for Gripen (probably Aero India 2007?) stating that the flying/hr costs for Gripen were 50% lower than its closest competitor (most likely), and if so these figures for Gripen and US sound about right…but then we could only extrapolate considering the difference in the total number of units Sweden & US operates. OTOH, Mig-35 flying/hr costs are meant to be approximately 2.5 times lower than earlier model Mig-29, and F-18 is meant to be around 40% cheaper than F-14, though I have no idea of the relevant costs of Mig-29 and F-14s (must be in tens of thousands of $). Having said I think there is only one thing relatively safe to assume here; flying per hour costs would be cheapest for the Gripen. Next in line would most likely be F-16 (single engine) and following that would probably (guestimating now) eurocanards and then Mig-35/F-18???

gheez, no wonder Iceland dosen’t bother with creating an Air force :rolleyes:

I would like to know what is the “life cycle costs” of each a/c in MMRCA.

and related the story!…to his Indian counterpart! How convenient:)

Or they are too cozy to share it. Some one in China should worry about it then.

Abhimanyu,

How many years Rafale has been around? Its only now Dassault claims that its a mature system. It has put some years in Afghanistan. Tejas will have to put up a lot of years for maturity as India does not yet posses a self made proven plane in recent few decades. IAF needs a mature system. The MMRCA’s even if they have latest additions, they still are evolution that spans 3-4 decades. India needs to have a mix of fighters which includes MMRCA and Tejas.

The Russian 5th gen will be customised for IAF like SU-30 MKI. But, India still needs MCA for self development. Its more of a strategic decision, than equipment decision. India will never be able to build 6th or 7th gen if we do not pursue MCA.

On the purchase decision, IAF was happy with M2K. Our political outlook and new circumstances made it slow. The IAF has urgency. Then there is no guarantee that LCA MK2 will fly in the time frame.

See, I’m talking of Tejas Mk.2 when it would have obtained Final Operating Certificate (FOC) from IAF. FOC certifies a fighter as combat worthy

.

Not sure.

No, actually I was referring to the indian newspaper article link, pasted above by your compatriot, refering to a top secret report which was handed from the PAF chief to the Pakistani PM, which somehow was placed on the desk of an indian journalist.

Really can’t see the connection.

May be because Indians didn’t want Pakistanis to know that Indians already know it.

India kicks off work on advanced missile defence shield

Buoyed by the successful testing of its fledgling ballistic missile defence, India is pushing ahead with an ambitious version of the
star wars project capable of shooting down incoming ICBMs in the 5,000 km range.

The phase-II of the BMD systems, likely to be deployed by 2014, will be an important part of India’s defence as both China and Pakistan possess nuclear capable missiles. Once the BMD is in place it will place India in a fairly exclusive club alongside US, Russia and Israel.

If the ongoing Phase-I BMD system is geared to tackling enemy missiles with a 2,000-km range, Phase-II is enhance capacities significantly. Plans are also afoot to have space-based surveillance systems to ensure a hostile threat can be detected even earlier than the present long-range tracking radars (LRTRs) used in the BMD system, which track the `enemy’ missile as well as guide the `interceptor’ missile in destroying it.

Sources said DRDO has told the government that while the Phase-I systems can be deployed from 2012 onwards, the Phase-II systems will come into operational play only from 2014 onwards at the earliest.

There will be another interesting spin-off from the indigenous two-tier BMD system, capable of tracking and destroying hostile missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth’s atmosphere. It will give India a potent anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon since technology required for “neutralisation” of a ballistic missile or a satellite is somewhat similar.

India, of course, has received presentations from the three countries which have operational BMD or anti-ballistic missile systems — US (Patriot Advanced Capability-3), Russia (S-300V) and Israel (Arrow-2) — as of now.

Though all three are hawking their systems to India, New Delhi has decided to go in for its own “home-grown” BMD system specifically designed to meet its security needs. Moreover, there are financial and feasibility concerns about importing foreign systems.

“We are cooperating with countries to bridge our technology gaps. US, for instance, has a different threat profile. Its systems will not be suitable for us. Our system has to cater for our own threat profile,” DRDO chief controller for missiles, Dr V K Saraswat, said on Monday.

Dismissing PAC-3 as “an outdated system”, the scientist said India’s BMD system was “20-30% more capable” than it. He, however, acknowledged the BMD system had received some help from countries like Israel (LRTRs), France (fire-control radars) and Russia (seekers).

In the earlier tests, in November 2006 and December 2007, the enemy missiles had been “killed” at altitudes of 48-km and 15-km respectively. The next test, with both exo and endo interceptor missiles in an integrated mode, is slated for September.

“We will complete all our tests for Phase-I by 2010-2011. All BMD building blocks like long-range radars, communication network, mission control centre and launch control centre are in place,” said Saraswat.

“What we are now perfecting are Phase-I interceptor missiles, which fly at 4.5 Mach high-supersonic speeds. We are already working on Phase-II interceptors, which will have hypersonic speeds of 6-7 Mach,” he added.