Its a habit of making small purchases initially and then based on the in-service experience, making follow-on purchases that eventually get to the number they always wanted. Maybe its a procurement ploy, to skirt around MoF objections over the scale of the purchase.

This is the case with a host of items, from Krivak frigates to T-90/Arjun tanks to C-130J/C-17 transport aircraft to P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft..

I’m guessing we’ll see that happen with the AH-64D Apaches too. 22 is just too small a number for an army the size of the Indian Army. LCH’s will complement those numbers, but they need at least a couple more squadrons of heavy gunships.

I can see how that worksl. I can also see India getting substantially less generous terms via this method than could’ve been possible for a single, larger order, both for reasons of scale and because for subsequent orders the vendor already has India ‘on the hook’ as it were. Course India undermining her own interests is not a new story either…

Course it goes the other way around too: dead pilots don’t mean broke chopper…

The grunts weren’t even making it to the trees. They had leapt out, screaming murderously, but now they dropped all around us, dying and dead. The lead ship’s rotors still turned, but the men inside did not answer.

[….]

I looked down at the two ships sitting quietly on the ground. Their rotors were turning lazily as their turbines idled. The machines didn’t care, only the delicate protoplasm inside them cared. Bodies littered the clearing, but some of the thirty grunts we had brought in were still alive. They had made it to cover at the edge of the clearing.

[….]

Somebody finally shut down Yellow One’s turbine when we left. Nobody in the crew could. They were all patiently waiting to be put into body bags for the trip home.

— Robert Mason, ‘Chickenhawk’.

My guess is that they won’t be replaced given the current economic climate in Spain.

Still… that’s an awful lot of jets to lose. Surely they’ll take on an extra squadron or two of Typhoons if it comes to that. Or UCAVs if we’re talking post-2020.

What does the cold war gone hot have to do with Danish defence needs of today?

I think we all agree that Denmark faces no direct threat to the homeland. Fighters will therefore be needed for air policing and NATO ops. So let us look at NATO ops.

Whether one agrees with it or not (I don’t — surprise!) it is astonishing the degree to which the notion of ‘NATO ops’ is now advanced as if this is an entirely unremarkable thing: that it is eminently natural that Denmark should plan its force structure around providing moral support for the United States’ global misadventures. What sleight of hand accomplished this unremarked transition for NATO? What forces contrive to sustain it amidst the public failures of the last decade, ongoing fiscal pressure, and the continued absence of anything resembling a real threat?

Also, a termination would result in a significant decrease in the strengthening of knowledge and innovation in the participating industries.

I wouldn’t ascribe this any value above and beyond the raw $$$ involved. If you don’t have the whole kit for strategic independence, having bits of it doesn’t really help. Maintaining skillsets is important for nations like France and even those who’d like to retain the ability to ratchet up a robust domestic industry at will e.g. Japan, but for smaller nations …. who cares if one can or cannot produce (for example) world-class actuators. You can’t fight a war with actuators.

I happen to think that the F-35 will be a “game changer” in many ways [….] the main issues that I see right now are related to costs and timelines.

I like how you can replace ‘F-35’ with ‘NASP’ or ‘SDI’ and it still makes sense.

Tejas Mk.2 as a MiG-21++? Sure, why not? After all, the F-22 is merely a P-38++++ 😉