scooter, I referred to you by name after I had responded to the poster immediately above. c’mon, it’s not that hard to see it was not directed at you.

gray area, if you say so. a response to a flamer not to pollute a thread is removed as ‘personal attack’ while the flame remains as it is. some unbiased moderation this ! still, as long as people can discuss without regular attempts at thread derailment, I’m fine with it.

Well, the Harrier would be equally vulnerable would it not?
What I meant was, dont use the Harrier for CAS but a dedicated fleet of relatively rugged Su-25 types. They’ll still be dependent on AFB, but then, I really doubt whether Harriers are a sustainable buy given how complex they are, and spares are going to be an issue.

hey, I am not in favour of the harriers either ! :p

the LCA’s are the best bet for that role, in addition to helicopters. if needed we might even field a version with armour plating around cockpit and engine.

kaveri is primarily being developed now keeping the AMCA in mind. it is also likely to find its place in the future UCAV program. other than that ADA director PS Subramanium says the more powerful kaveri would be used as replacement engines for the first batch of LCA Mk1’s which currently use the GE 404 IN20.

from bharat-rakshak.com

The Kaveri has successfully been tested on its flying test bed in Russia.

History of sorts has been made because this is the first time an Indian engine has powered any aircraft and marks the beginning of a new era.

No link yet. “A little birdie”. A reliable birdie. But it will appear in the news in due course.

my understanding is pakistan (mostly) does not pay for weapons transfers from US and therefore the ones you listed does not fall under the category of ‘purchase’.
purchase refers to arms transfers from other countries and till now you or anyone else haven’t provided information on any such deal.

because we haven’t yet heard of any specific deals about pakistan buying arms ?

true, though I doubt the journalist appreciates that particular difference.
however the sea harriers are rather different from the RAF harriers, especially after their respective upgrades.

No.
If you go to the FMS site, there tons and tons of DSCA letters of notice to the Congress of possible sales of military equipment that didnt happen, and a lot of those were made in the midle of fierce international competitions that in the end the american company lost.
I can remember DSCA notice letters for Vipers to Austria (two of them, actually), to Brasil, to Romania, etc, etc, etc.

Sintra the difference being in this case there was no competition or prospective deals in the offing. India has not shown interest in PAC or aegis and the F-35 is at a very preliminary stage now if at all it ever progresses further.

there is not going to be a DSCA notice for a competition that doesn’t exist yet.