21AnkushDeccan Herald » National » Detailed Story
IAF plans three-fighter arsenal
From Kalyan Ray, DH News Service, New Delhi:
As per the IAF plans, the existing MiGs MiG 21, MiG 23, MiG 25, MiG 27 and MiG 29 along with Jaguars and Mirage will be phased out.
Striving to become a force with more lethal power, the Indian Air Force in the long run plans to retain only three types of fighters in its fleet — the Russian Sukhoi, indigenous light combat aircraft and the 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft the tender for which has been issued recently.
Charting a new course in its platinum jubilee year, the IAF intends to trim down the inventory so that the complexity involving maintenance of various types of fighters is reduced. Currently, the IAF flies eight types of fighters besides a host of transport aircraft and helicopters.
‘Easy maintenance’
“In the future, we will have a few lethal weapons so that maintaining will be easier. Typically we are looking at a fleet comprising Su-30, LCA and the MMRCA,” said Chief of the Air Staff Fali Homi Major.As per the IAF plans, the existing MiGs — MiG 21, MiG 23, MiG 25, MiG 27 and MiG 29 — along with Jaguars and Mirage will be phased out. However, since it is a time consuming process, some of the existing fighters will be upgraded to extend its service life for another few years.
“The Jaguars and MiG-27s have been upgraded. We are now negotiating the upgradation for MiG-29 and Mirage 2000. Upgradation of the transport planes like Il-76 and An-32 as well as the helicopter fleet will follow,” said Air Marshal Major.
Upgradation
Phasing out of some of the older generation aircraft, upgradation of the existing aircraft and possible induction of LCA in 2010 and MMRCA by 2012, is expected to change the profile of the 75 year old IAF, which began its journey with four Wapitis in 1932.“Because of our energy security requirements, IAF’s responsibility has increased tremendously. Our area of operation may go up to the South China Sea and we should have the compatibility of operating outside our home base. If our plans fructify, a different IAF can be seen in the next five years,” the IAF chief said.
IAF’s first foreign base may come up in Tajikistan where it repaired a strategic runway in Ayni, close to the Afghanistan border. India’s interest in Ayni is on two counts — to have a handle on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in case of another IC-814 hijack type incident and to monitor the scenario around the central Asian oil and gas reserve.
The IAF top brass, however, is not worried about depleting squadron strength, which now stands at 32 as against the sanctioned 39.5 squadrons. Due to the maintenance needs, at any given point of time IAF has 28-29 squadrons for operations, which reduces the IAF’s air superiority compared to Pakistan and China.
21AnkushAs if this tiny probe doubles RCS or so… 😀
:rolleyes:
it definitely increases the frontal RCS. laugh all you want, but if one takes LO as seriously as Dassault makes it out to be for the Rafale, they’d not be putting fixed probes right up front.
TAZZ, the Rafale does not have a retractable probe. its a fixed probe and the Dassault website claims its main reason is to eliminate complex systems during design.
“The decision to eliminate the complex systems from the early design phase (a fixed refuelling probe, but removable, fixed air intake, no airbrake, no constant speed drive due to variable frequency,…) ensures spare, maintenance man hours and support equipment reduction.”
21AnkushTAZZ, I’m not sure that makes sense if one looks at another fighter type- the MiG-29. It was designed to be a point-defence fighter and not the kind to have great endurance or range. yet, modern demands mean that it needs to have the probe to increase range- and the Russians have installed a retractable (semi-retractable?) probe on it.
so, just having envisioned or not envisioned a probe during design is not necessarily the reason for having a retractable/fixed probe- could just as well be a lot of avionics and a good deal of redesign to change plumbing lines to accomodate a new retractable probe. its just cheaper to install a fixed probe and not have to make major changes to the internal plumbing and structure.
when one looks at the Rafale, considering that its LO is touted as an advantage, a fixed probe is a complete no-no. there will be an associated penalty of RCS, which could surely be more costly than a simple redesign to include a retractable probe.
21AnkushWell it is not in my interest to dump LCA, but dump the people involved in development for the last quarter of century and bring in new fresh talent.
Stop this you don’t know anthing and am the all knowing avaition specialist thingy, you can’t grow in stature by belittling somebody. Ya for one stop rediculing the defence journalists also, coz they know more than you can dream in your life time. They have more access to people that matter than you can fantasize your sources in your corner.
what utter bull****. dump experienced people and get people whom you can just call ‘fresh talent’ and your aircraft’s problems will get sorted out ? what a genius you are man ! ever thought of becoming a manager at Boeing with all its manpower issues ?? :rolleyes: goes to show what your own aviation experience is..
as for so called ‘defence journos’ in India, most of them are pretty incompetent, spitting out whats told to them without bothering to check whether they make sense or not..anyone following Indian defence knows that. some are good, but then again, they’re few and far between.
21AnkushI can not see your point. When the Kaveri is over 20000 lb’s, the LCA design is too to cope with that. The F404 installed in the LCA shares the same dimensions as the F414.
It is no secret, that India is forced by the delays from the Kaveri to use the F404 as an interim engine to get the LCA airborne. The LCA will be built in several batches at all. If the first batch is with Kaveri or not does not matter really. The LCA has to see “front-line” service as fast as possible to learn from that as fast as possible too. A Rafale F1 is good enough for A2A work only and did field M88-1 engines, when the later built will receive advanced M88 and the FBW will mature in software to widen the flying envelope and integration of missions. To find all shortcomings through testing alone is a never ending story and by that the LCA will become outdated some day. What the Chinese did with the J-10/F-10 or FC-1/F-17 since the 90s could be done by India in a similar way. When the F-35 will enter service in rising numbers, the stealth feature is no longer limited to the USA in general. Neither France, Sweden, Israel or China did start a new fighter project with a total new indigenous engine at the same time. In the 60s India may have learned that lesson with the HF-24/HA300 at all.
the first 2-3 squadrons of the Tejas are going to be flying with the F-404. just that its a variant of the F-404 with the highest installed thrust. the F-404 IN20 on GE’s website claims thus-
“Earlier this year, the F404-GE-IN20 was trial-installed in Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) as part of final evaluations toward flight-testing, scheduled for mid-2007. The F404-IN-20 engine has generated more than 19,000 pounds (85 kN) uninstalled thrust and has completed 330 hours of Accelerated Mission testing, which is the equivalent of 1,000 hours of flight operation.
The F404-GE-IN20 succeeds F404-F2J3 development engines used for nearly 600 flights, cumulatively covering eight engines.
Based on the F404-GE-402, the F404-GE-IN20 is the highest rated F404 model and includes a higher-flow fan, increased thrust, a Full Authority Digital Electronic Control (FADEC) system, single-crystal turbine blades and a variety of single-engine features.”
GE press release on F-404- IN20
the next prototype of the Tejas will be flying with the F-404 IN20. no F-414 business since the emphasis will be on getting the first couple of squadrons in service and then get the Kaveri mature.
21AnkushIf a foreign fighter has to be selected, the F-18E will offer the most gains in technology. Stealth is still a “black hole” for India and many other countries f.e. The F-414 can replace the Kaveri to accelerate the LCA into service.
It does not matter, that the LCA did not fullfill all missions at first. Will it be the Rafale, Typhoon or Sukhois, they does offer some basics at first, when they does maturing with every lot built to the desired level of missions.
nobody has mentioned that the IAF is looking at the F-414 and the F-404 IN20 should be adequate till the Kaveri comes online. And even before the Tejas comes into service, you’r talking about it not fulfilling all missions at first? a little too premature dont you think?
21Ankush21Ankushno idea man.
21AnkushThanks 21Ankush…but why is it like that?
like what ?
21AnkushTejas with drop tanks in high resolution
21AnkushOK take this for what its worth… an off the record comment –
Pirate has detected and tracked a F117 at ~100 nautical miles.
No other parametersinformation were supplied, but you would suppose this was under very good to ideal circumstances, F117’s are not fitted with an Afterburner, and would be fairly cool to an IRST, I’m think I’m happy with the comment with the above caveats, the range is heavily dependent on conditions.
Cheers
if true, then future Typhoons could dispense with the radar itself, hey ?:p
21AnkushIndeed bring_it_on, the Tejas is looking far better in the Production Variant standard. I cant wait to see the twin-seater, which looks very good as well in what pics I’v seen of it till now. and the N-LCA will make its first flight in mid-2008, so things are progressing. with drop-tanks, the endurance of test flights will improve tremendously and that should help in achieving the required number of hours for Initial Operational Capability. more airframes are joining too, so the pace is picking, and with the next birds getting the F-404 IN20 engines, the issue of thrust will be gone too.
21AnkushQUETTA: Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jet has been crashed near Quetta during routine training flight on Wednesday.
According to sources, F-7 jet was on routine training flight when crashed at Buleli near Quetta due to technical fault. The plane caught fire right after the crash that was doused by fire tenders.
The pilot has been martyred in the crash. Probe of the incident has been launched.
21AnkushMuns, you beat me to posting that. great news indeed !
21AnkushVery neat, 21Ankush. Thanks for the clarification. What are the two AT missiles on the outer pylons in that pic of the LCH that you posted? Mine just had rockets and Mistrals if I recall correctly.
The Dhruv WSI is the one like the PZL Głuszec. The LCH is the one like the Ansat, got it. Thanks for those WSI pictures.
Logan Hartke
eventually the Dhruv WSI and the LCH will carry the Nag (Cobra) Anti-tank missiles. I’m guessing that the standard loadout would then be 2 Mistrals and 8 Nags.
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