Atlantiques
5 F-27s
2 P-3C (8 on order/requested)
Fleet of submarines

All of the above will be looking for the carrier and have the ability pass on info…..

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Thought they had only one atlantique left.

No, we had 5 and lost one, leaving 4, I dont know how on earth you came up with the number 1……

Dude
Nuclear subs give one side a second strike capability….

The Agave is a dedicated maritime radar, capable of identifying a small warship at 50 km. It has an air-to-air mode but it’s limited in that context.

No FLIR but Grifo-M. Neither are high power sets, hence the dependance on the controller at the more powerful radar at Badin or P-3Cs (even though their APS-115s are ageing). For allocation of the latter, it depends on what the PN considers higher priority – Klub armed subs or the carrier battle group. Irrespective of the carrier, the IAF should consider these as prime targets anyway, given their importance and vulnerability to BVR attacks.

LMAO! Are’nt aware of something called ESM are we? Now, the Agave and Grifo-M have the same spectral characteristics? 😀

Yes but that’s in the future, not now.

Seahawk, satellite surveillance and MPAs keep tabs on the situation at the critical target ports in question. The carrier strike group is’nt going to be cut off in terms of SA and procedures will only be carried out in accordance with the latter. Also, when a SHAR carries out his intercept, his intension to approach undetected (hence the reliance on the ‘D’) and switch on his radar only in final approach. (For example, when Fl.lt Steve Thomas was led to his intercepts, the Argentinian Mirages apparently did’nt have a clue as to who was there. Neither did the F/A-18 from VFA-192 when Cdr SK Sharma jumped him, in his SHAR) You could possibly have an MPA watching at long range but their air-to-air search performance is also degraded at that range and you certainly can’t expect an APS-115 to track low flying, non-emitting (or even wide beam searching) fighters at 250 km or beyond.

Lastly, you certainly need sophisticated decoys to mimick the RCS and spectral characteritics of a strike fighter. There are certainly no ITALD class decoys in the said country’s inventory.

You dont need sophisticated decoys, even slow moving ones will be regarded as a threat during war, and this does still not cover the fact (as seahawk pointed out) that a large number of Mirage sorties will be flown just in order to scramble Indian SHARS with no intention to attack and thus increase the pilot and maintenence pressure on the small harrier fleet

Optimal strategy for the IN would probably be to have its two carriers in close proximity to each other s as to maximize cap numbers in the air, IAF su-30s will lend support as a squadron is planned to be assigned to the task, the advantage will still be with the IN but it seems that an optimal PAF strategy would be to launch a massive attack on the fleet in the early days of the war when the PAF is at its peak strength wise, since the war will be short, any sinking will result in paf fan posting articles for decades to come, chill though, this is but a dream for now. 🙂

No dude, any sinking will mean we are at war and young Indian Navy sailors who woke up that morning expecting to live will have lost their lives, as well as , in all probability, quite a few PAF pilots. I dont think anyone on this forum will be “posting articles for decades”, some people dont think like that. 🙁

are the three on stage about to break into an renddition of “In The Navy”!? 😀

An excellent post Seahawk, hope PN commanders think along the same lines!
Lets not forget that

1) Those F-7s will start slowly turning into JF-17s from 2007 onwards and we expect BVR AAMs with these

2) If the carriers presence is confirmed, you could expect some of the following PAF/PN assets to help out

Falcon 20 EW aircraft, F-27s (it is reported these are Exocet capable but I have no confirmation)

Clever tactics with the P3’s or Atlantics is the answer to that one.

A geriatric Argentine P-2 Neptune caught the RN Type42 screen on its ESM with enough resolution to direct in the Etendard strike in 1982. It managed to do this without receiving Sea Harrier atention because it, cleverly, chose a patrol pattern that looked like it was hunting for survivors from the Belgrano and our AAWCS ignored it as a low priority threat.

I think the shooting down of the Atlantique by the IAF showed that the PN wont take that sort of thing for granted though mate, I think (and hope!) we will be careful in using our MPA assets!

If the other 8 Orions are delivered you can expect the PN to have at least 1 Atlantique and 2 or 3 P-3Cs airborne permanantly…..