PLA MKII, grandstrategy.com is your own blog isn’t it ?

interesting, Air Cmde Pervez Khokhar was PD LCA flight test program during LCA’s weapons trials, which Ajai Shukla covered extensively.

I’ve got same questions as Deino. I thought the MF first flew in 90’s ? :confused: what’s the 476 then ?

jonesy, chances are remote that IN would want to go for AAW destroyer right now (of course BAe would still want to peddle its products, you are correct in that)

for one, IN’s policy calls for all its major ships (frigate class and above) to have significant ASW capability in the form of two choppers. the krivaks, having been manufactured in russia are the only exceptions in recent memory. then again, the barak NG which has already seen significant investment by India is expected to fulfil the requirement for the next decade.
beyond that, if IN decides to go for a specialised AAW ship, a modified version of India’s ABM system is far more likely than a foreign system.

You should type slowly, especially if it helps you think about what you type before you press the submit button.

so you try to improve thinking by typing slowly ? 😮 going by your example, I won’t recommend it.

You do realise that the speed with which you type makes no odds to the readers as we only get to see the submission after you have finished typing?

the fact that you have to respond to what is clearly a tongue in cheek comment with an explanation kind of leads me to doubt whether you understand anything at all that is said in these forums.

Boom

“britian’s deterrence force itself is more for prestige and show than for any real utility”

As I said earlier, you really dont have a clue do you?

The fact that every single MAJOR nuclear power has a sub-based nuke detterent , well dont let facts like that get in the way of your fanboy dreams…

well do speak for yourself ! 😉
nice try trying to twist what I said, with a gratuitous personal attack thrown in.
the fact remains that I have not made any observation about the desirability of sub based deterrents much as you try to create that strawman !
what I said was quite clear, all 3 deterrence types have a role to play to fulfill India’s requirements, including aircraft based ones. and UK’s deterrence needs are not same as India’s.

It does if your sub based weapons are short legged and you have not miniturised nuclear weapons.

Britain has been doing without strategic bombs (read free fall nuclear bombs) since the 90s.

An airwing is just pure sitting duck feeding fanboy ego, in Indias neighbourhood it is of little use apart from saying look i have a plane with canards for my bomb it does nothing else (well apart from build up costs).

well may be it does but you are too stuck up with how britain goes about its job to spare a thought how it may (or as is more likely, may not) apply to India’s case ?
perhaps if you actually tried and understand how India’s scenario is not same as that of britian (gee, it’s not THAT hard) you could get it by yourself ? britian’s deterrence force itself is more for prestige and show than for any real utility, hardly the same as India’s needs.

it just takes a tiny bit of thinking to see that aircraft based deterrence offers much more flexibility and possibility of improvised responses to the commanders. for that matter I do not believe that there will be squadrons formally earmarked for this job and put in one base with a neon sign saying ‘nuclear fighter base’ on it but aircraft based deterrence will definitely be there and for good reason.

Also remember one of the points of the air based weapons was to have some bombs constantly in the air now what aircraft in India can do that without needed massive logistics support? Also what aircracft in service in India has the capability to do that plus carry a missile big enough to have a 1000 km plus range? to make it worth while and really be a deterent and not just a detergent.

well great job building up a giant strawman and demolishing it with your proverbial logical prowess.

the report clearly mentions fighter class aircrafts already in service for the role, which clearly can’t have very long missions. nowhere has a need for 24/7 flying bombs been mentioned and neither is IAF or SNC said to be interested in bombers. and yet you go on and on about how 24/7 flying bombs is not feasible with India’s current assets when it is not even a targeted capability.

Indian Navy has given up on the Tu-95’s (Tu-142) which could have carried a few long range cruise missiles when India has them. Not sure if can do the same on the P-8’s. Not sure if the US would give permission.

FYI, the navy’s deterrence is expected to be sub-based, not MPA based.

Wondering if all this effort/money wouldn’t be better spent on, say, reducing poverty, improving health care, education etc….

nah, it won’t be better spent, although I wonder if people shouldn’t be better informed before spouting opinions.
the money spent on defence R&D is peanuts compared to the amount spent on the education, health care or education.

the problem in those areas is not lack of money, it is of management of allocated resources. if the money that is allocated to poverty alleviation, health etc was better used we would have had very few problems indeed. it’s not a problem that is solved by throwing money at it and certainly not by robbing the peanuts from an already impoverished indigenous military R&D set-up, which would only serve to increase our dependence on far more costly foreign weapons.

to put things in perspective, the ENTIRE annual budget of DRDO is less than the amount spent in any one representative state (there are 28 states in all) through one poverty alleviation scheme NREGA (out of half a dozen such). I’m not even talking of the amounts spent on education or health care.