IAF Chronicles - A side view of whats going on behind the closed doors in New Delhi

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A Person said:
The USA don't want to sell the F-35 to India, at least not yet. Buying lots of useless, outdated F-16 is the price India has to pay before it's granted the privilege of buying overpriced, over-engineered, underperforming F-35.
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The US is open to selling the F-35 to India. But IAF has a requirement for tried and tested because of our numbers situation. For our current requirement, the F-16 is not outdated. Our current aircraft purchases are for a tier 2 requirement, so the F-16 is good enough as a tier 2 aircraft. The IAF is not expecting to penetrate air defences with this aircraft. That goes even for Rafale.

The fact that the F-35 today is overpriced, over-engineered and under-performing is the reason why IAF is not interested in it as of today. Let's see how the Block 2 model is. Again, this is a tier 2 requirement. So the F-35 will be tried and tested in 2035 and will automatically qualify for the next MMRCA type requirement.

The primary tier 1 aircraft will continue to be FGFA and/or AMCA.
 
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_Anonymous_ said:
If the Rafale , selected primarily for ground attack given the FA it's supposed to replace isn't going to penetrate air defences , what's its role then ?
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Ground attack and SEAD/DEAD are not the same.

Rafale may be a special case because it exceeds the requirements of MMRCA. So it may be capable of effective SEAD/DEAD for now. But IAF's intention is not to buy SEAD/DEAD aircraft, the MMRCA requirement is only for a modern proven air superiority aircraft with secondary ground attack capability.

Even if the old one didn't, the new F-16 should fit the bill as far as MMRCA is concerned. An aircraft like the Rafale is simply a bonus.

The aircraft that will actually open up the path for other aircraft will be the FGFA and AMCA.
 
dont you guys think rafale has become victim to the petty politics and we are not going to see any fresh order till the general election
 
vikata said:
dont you guys think rafale has become victim to the petty politics and we are not going to see any fresh order till the general election
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Further Rafale purchases can only happen after elections. The same with the F-16, even if they go for a GTG instead of a tender.

The only possibilities before elections would be the MKI upgrade, and there's a sliver of a chance that we may see some movement on PAK FA/FGFA.
 
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randomradio said:
Further Rafale purchases can only happen after elections. The same with the F-16, even if they go for a GTG instead of a tender.

The only possibilities before elections would be the MKI upgrade, and there's a sliver of a chance that we may see some movement on PAK FA/FGFA.
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What has elections got to do with fighter jet deals?
 
@Aashish Bhaisaab could you confirm this ?
Breaking News/Chit Chat/Kaana Fusi : MK2 & AMCA gets GoI sanction(not official yet). Can we consider this as final nail in SE deal's coffin ?

The MK2 was officially sanctioned in 2009 but this time it looks like MoD is seriously pushing for the 1st prototype before the MK1A production starts i.e. around 2021-23 period. MK2 design anyway looks sealed, ADA/HAL is only looking for the funds for the PT model stage to commence.

Not sure about the progress of AMCA though, somewhere heard that ADA is considering building the first PT by 2025 to perform taxi-run.
 
AbRaj said:
Most of us here can only guess due to lack of inside information. A well-informed guess or estimate based on commen sense ,experience or theoretical knowledge is anyway far better than believing blindly.

Emergency like Kargil war. Air force was caught pants down with almost no preparation to defend an invasion by our traditional foe.
I can only imagine what we had to do to get essential things in the middle of war.
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The US won't sanction us again. Even if they do, it won't affect ongoing deals.

The US had nothing to do with respect to why the IAF was not prepared during Kargil. It was only due to the technology of the time along with lack of money so we couldn't modernize. If we had the money in the early 90s, we would have had 20 or 30 new advanced M-2000s during Kargil.

And not only poor countries but comparatively better countries like South Korea ,Japan,Australia too. They are habituated to do arm twisting ,like you don't need this and that etc .
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The US cannot and will not arm twist India into doing something that will hurt us. There is a very big limit to what the US can and cannot do. And by the time the US ends up in a situation where they can arm twist us, we can arm twist back. Other countries don't have that luxury. You overestimate the US too much.
 
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