Simple simple answer. Incompetence at every level of procurement. If it was not for Parrikar, we would not have even the Tejas. And then we will be playin 7D chess to explain why Rafale and F-16 are the cats whiskers.
LCA Tejas Mk1 & Mk1A - News and discussions
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Simple simple answer. Incompetence at every level of procurement. If it was not for Parrikar, we would not have even the Tejas. And then we will be playin 7D chess to explain why Rafale and F-16 are the cats whiskers.
2 birds not in the same league.
Tejas is a point defense fighter, when Rafale is made to deep strike (and nuc assault).
The 2 lack of sufficient quantity to really worried China....
Ask yourself and tell me. If i give you Tejas & Rafale and asks you engage attacking PAF or PLAAF, which one will you take. Remember, if you didn't make up 1) you will have a widow in your home & kid/kids without father & financial support
2) Nation loosing territory to the enemy.
Parikar just crippled our airforce, either knowingly or unknowingly.
Single Engine Fighter (F-21) procurement was propped up by certain section to kill not only Tejas, but Uttam, AESA based ASPJ etc etc. Without it MKI UPG wont be happening, and would be buying Russian radars,jammer and other sensors, but we all know russian ego is bigger than of Statue of Unity, while product performance well below mariana trench.
Furthur, the embarassement we faced in F-21 saga, where we asked true LPI capability, and where Americans was like we add frequency hopping in SABR, thats all. Now you are getting true LPI radar with Uttam. Moreover they refused to add Indian MC.
MKI UPG with 200 Tejas Mk1A is real punch, it totally change the balance of power, not only againt Pak, but China.
300-400 4.5 gens would not be simple to handle. J-20 or J-31 doesnt matter much, but if PAF got hands on F-16 Block 72, it again force us to look outwards.
Exactly. 200+ Tejas will bring in the quality of quantity. And everything with it, like increased availability and dispersement capability. I only wish we had take 76 Rafales, instead of this 36.And because its ours, we can tweak and do what we want with it.
I didn't ask you Rafale or F16, i ask Rafale or Tejas.
And explain me why you should choose Tejas, a mediocre aircraft compares to Rafale after 10 years when threat we facing also advanced to 10 years.
200 Tejas means, 200 more tragets for PLAAF if you are not operating 200 or so Rafale. The old proverb like quantity has its own quality is a wet dream which shattered in Ukraine.
Both are required is my answer. Rafale and Tejas. They play entirely different roles. Like saying, why have F-16 when the F15/22 was present. Though, like I mentioned 72 should have been the number not 36.
In fact, Ukraine reinforces the quantity debate.
Maybe not in same league but Tejas MK1A's radar is as good as Rafale if not better. Give it Astra 2 and it's quite a competent BVR package against even the Chinese. Its range with drop tanks is not that bad and thanks to its small size it's going to be a handful for the Chinese over the Himalayas in a dogfight. ASRAAM Block 6 and very high instantaneous turn rate along with HMD gives it very good chance there as well.
Very soon, we're going to put BrahMos-NG onto it and then it also becomes a worry for Chinese SAM sites and other surface targets.
@Parthu is correct. Tejas MK1A is going to be quite important fighter for us.
I'm not saying Mk1A & Rafale are the same.
I'm saying the number & variety of assets the Chinese will need to deploy in order to counter a squadron of Rafales is going to be much lesser than what they need to do in order to counter 4 squadrons of Mk1As.
Thats what made them worried, the first dispatchers are/were not F-22 or F-15, but F-16s.
Furthur, Rafale wasnt made for deep strike, it was Indians who asked GMTI/GMTT and SAR modes in ISA.
Such a self defeatist mindset, like Chinese are interdimensional civilization, and Rafale is only the saviour.
Even after developing F-35 and F-22, USAF never claimed that if they be without it, whole AF crumble. I dont know how Indians inherit such inferiority complex.
Its a HPF, how many sorties and for how long it able to do during high tempo, really change the game.
And its not just the radar (Uttam is way better than RBE2, especially in heavy EW conditions), but force multipliers like NCW and jammers which are integrated with RWR.
And we are totally forgetting MKI, we are installing 15 kw Jammers (Peak power) in UPG, and that is of GaN, that be deeply integrated with a 20 kw Gan based Uttam radar. Chicoms sustain heavy number of crashes in Tibet after such upgrade.
Because of Tejas, we are at a level where we can think about mass production..
Production capacity is getting ramped up even though results are yet to be out.
GE engines are turning out to be speed breakers with production fixed at 20/ year and also the sole Tejas accident.
Engines are turning out to be Achilles heel.
Hopefully GE F 414 deal and 120 - 130 Kn new engine will get us over that.
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On topic , why aren't we thinking about designing Indigenous Diesel subs?
Just like Advanced Jet Trainer.
Diesel sub is needed yesterday can't wait..
AJT - not needed at present so no need to do it now.
Basically we just give reasons to import.
Production capacity is getting ramped up even though results are yet to be out.
GE engines are turning out to be speed breakers with production fixed at 20/ year and also the sole Tejas accident.
Engines are turning out to be Achilles heel.
Hopefully GE F 414 deal and 120 - 130 Kn new engine will get us over that.
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On topic , why aren't we thinking about designing Indigenous Diesel subs?
Just like Advanced Jet Trainer.
Diesel sub is needed yesterday can't wait..
AJT - not needed at present so no need to do it now.
Basically we just give reasons to import.
F16 is a single engine medium category multirole fighter, F15 is heavy air superiority fighter. You cant compare a LCA tejas with F16 at any point of time, Tejas is having similar spec of trainer/light attack aircraft like FA-50. You wana fight an enemy with this?
Ukrain is standing on its feet against a military manufacturing behemoth like Russia after 2 years of war. Ukrain is holding against Russia with entirely imported weapon now.
If you are thinking that you can defeat china only with domestic manufacturing during war, then you are in a fool's paradize, also same if you are thinking that you can defeat Pak if the later gets similar support from west the way Ukrain is getting.
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They have F16 & F15,both are good enough to deal any non aircraft flying. And you forgot what USAF inventory is when comes to force multipliers. With out firing a single bullet & missile, they managed to shoot down numerous Russian aircraft, only juust by relaying the data from their spy network to ukrain .
Uttam MK1A's(with 912 TRMs) performance maybe even better than RBE2 AESA, but I was talking about Elta EL/M-2052 which will be the current radar of MK1A. Its performance is not that different from RBE2 AESA give or take.
Thank you. Exactly, my point. You need both. The Tejas eventually, remember I said 10 years, will be more than a match for the f-16 for the role it has to perform.
Unable to identify if it's indeed number 33 or not.
But seems like it's the 1st Mk1A doing taxi trials.
