I have some confusion regarding roles of CAP, QRA and Air Interception. Is QRA different from interceptions?
I think LCA can do CAPs due to being cheaper and less maintenance hungry. Its endurance can be increased by external fuel tans for this role, which btw limits it’s weapon load.
But don’t you think QRA is done by Interceptors, with potent weapon load, longer endurance and superior flight kinematics than the adversary. LCA looks very deficient in every department.
I have seen Japanese and Korean movies and documentaries where they scramble F15 to take on intruding Chinese and North Koreans Sukhois and Migs.
@randomradio single engine fighters are preferred for CAPs and QRAs both ? Isn’t QRA is like emergency where you need your best man/machine to take on the enemy irrespective of the cost.
An interceptor is a category of aircraft that was designed for high speed. Its main job was to defend the air space and CAP and QRA are roles that the interceptor performed. A CAP is a planned role, where a group of aircraft take off at a designated time and patrol over a designated route. A QRA is an unplanned role, where a group of aircraft take off when something in the air is considered a threat. Due to technological advancements, now the same role is handled by air superiority aircraft and now multirole aircraft. The LCA is a multirole aircraft that can perform both interception and air superiority, along with ground strike and even recce. So both CAP and QRA can be performed by LCA.
Now, the reason why we in India use single engine aircraft for QRA is simple. The speed of an aircraft is about 900Km/hr, or about 1Km every 4 seconds. Which means, if an enemy aircraft is threatening to intrude into our air space from a distance of 60Km, the aircraft will be able to do it in 4 min. A single engine aircraft can turn on its engine and take off in 1.5-2 min, and achieve altitude in another 1.5 min. So in 3-3.5 min, the single-engine aircraft will have achieved a threatening position with respect to the enemy aircraft, ie, well before the enemy is at the border, we also have an aircraft in the air challenging it. In the same scenario, a twin engine jet would take 5 min to take off and 1.5 min to gain altitude. By the time 7.5 min are done, the enemy aircraft, if its intention is to attack, will have already finished its attack and would be heading back before the twin engine aircraft is able to respond to the threat.
This is all because our enemy air bases are about 170Km on average from our Western border. And with low altitude flying and ECM, it's possible that our response time will be even slower, hence the need to use SE aircraft as close to the border as realistically possible.
The CAP aircraft's main goal is to delay or even prevent an enemy attack before the QRA aircraft are up in the air in numbers. After which, the CAP and QRA aircraft work together to deal with the threat.
High performance is relative to the threat. Considering the threat the Pakistanis pose to India, the LCA is more than enough for this role. The aircraft has adequate technology, performance and weapons to deal with Pakistan and is much softer on our own defence budget. Otoh, we have much more response time with respect to China, however the Chinese have much more sophisticated aircraft, which requires us to match such a threat with equally sophisticated aircraft. Hence the LCA becomes less important in the East, primarily due to its low range (it's good for everything else). We need the MWF because it can stay up in the air for an extra hour compared to the LCA, which also translates into greater supersonic and combat time.
When the J-20 comes in supercruising, the LCA won't have the range or the speed necessary to combat it. If the J-20 can sustain mach 1.6 supercruise for 30 min or more, the LCA can only do 2-3 min at that speed. Otoh, if ADA is good enough, the MWF should be able to sustain at least mach 1.4 on minimum burner for 20 minutes or more, like the Flanker can. The LCA has no use in this theatre.
Similarly, other nations use SE or TE jets based on the response time needed. When the response time is adequate, the capability of the jet comes next. So when the Japanese use F-15s, they simply have enough time to put a more capable jet in the air. The UK also has time since they can see bombers coming in hundreds of Km away. The Koreans use F-5s, which they will replace with the F/A-50. Their operating conditions are similar to India's.
