Why India needs to rethink the Rafale deal

Russia India Report

Fighter planes fall into two categories – the hunters and the hunted. The French are pitching their Rafale as the dogfight duke that is the crème de la crème of jet fighters. But the Russian side disagrees. Alexander Kadakin, Russia's ambassador in India, says Chinese-made Sukhoi-27s would be able to swat the Rafales like “mosquitoes on an August night.”

At this point it’s pointless to deliver the verdict on which aircraft is superior. The Rafale is a largely unknown commodity in aviation circles. Like most French fighters, it is most likely an unassuming, unspectacular but honest aircraft.

India to ground its entire Sukhoi Su-30MKI fleet after crash

Two Sukhoi Su-30 MKIs refuelling from IL-78 tanker

India has grounded its entire Sukhoi-30 fleet after a recent crash because it doesn’t want to put its pilots in harm’s way.

The fighters have not flown for a week after a Su-30 MKI of the Indian Air Force crashed near Pune, raising questions about the safety record of the fighter.

With the IAF operating close to 200 twin-engine Su-30s, the grounded planes represent almost a third of the country’s fighter fleet. India is due to get 72 more of these planes, each worth over Rs. 200 crore.

The IAF is down to 34 combat squadrons, as against an authorised strength of 44. Each squadron has up to 18 fighter planes.

IAF aircraft C-130J Super Hercules crashes near Gwalior, 5 killed

IAF LM C-130J Super Hercules

NEW DELHI: A recently acquired C-130J transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed 72 miles west of Gwalior airbase on Friday morning, killing at least five personnel on board.

The IAF has no official word yet on how many personnel were aboard the aircraft.

The crash of the four-engine US made aircraft has baffled experienced pilots, given its safety records and extreme agility. One senior air force pilot said the accident was "bizarre", and speculated that either the crew was incapacitated or a fire broke out aboard the plane.

HAL rejects IAF proposal to produce Pilatus trainer aircraft

Source: PTI

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has rejected a proposal of Air Force to produce Pilatus aircraft in its facilities against the backdrop of a tussle between the two on whether to procure an imported trainer aircraft or develop it indigenously.

IAF has already placed an order for 75 Pilatus trainer aircraft and is planning to procure 106 more of them after the completion of the delivery of first lot by the end of 2017.

HAL, however, is in favour of developing the aircraft indigenously.

Antony to take up issues related to FGFA project with Russia

Source: PTI

Not happy with its share of work in the multi-billion dollar Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project with Russia, India is expected to flag the issue with that country during Defence Minister A K Antony’s visit there next month.

Though India is investing 50 per cent of the cost of the multi-billion dollar programme, its work share in the research and development and other aspects of the programme at the moment is only around 15 per cent, IAF officials said here.

India to finalize $15 billion Rafale deal by March, Indian Air Force says

Source: REUTERS

                                      

India will finalize a $15 billion deal to buy 126 Rafale fighter jets from France’s Dassault Aviation by March 2014, an Indian Air Force official said on Thursday, after the deal had been held up by differences over local manufacturing.

India picked the Rafale for exclusive negotiations in January 2012 after a bidding contest against Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, made by a consortium involving EADS, Finmeccanica and BAE Systems.

India to buy 6 more C-130J ‘Super Hercules’ aircraft

The Defence Ministry today gave its nod for purchase of six more C-130J "Super Hercules" aircraft from the US in a deal worth over Rs 4,000 crore.

The Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence Minister A K Antony cleared the deal and it will now go to Cabinet Committee on Security for the final approval, sources said.

India's Sukhoi-30MKI's to dominate South India and Indian Ocean

       

Even as the western and eastern fronts with Pakistan and China are bolstered with additional Sukhoi-30MKI squadrons, India has also kick-started plans to base its most lethal 'air dominance' fighter in south India to keep a 'strategic eye' over Indian Ocean. 

       Defence minister A K Antony will inaugurate the new airbase at Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu on May 27, which will eventually house a Sukhoi squadron (16 to 18 jets) after the requisite “tech-flight hangers, avionic bays, labs, fuel dumps and other infrastructure” comes up over the next few years.

India launches Rs 13,000 crore IAF aircraft project involving private sector

Indian AirForce Avro

     India has kick-started another mega defence project by floating the global tender for the over Rs 13,000-crore acquisition of 56 transport aircraft to replace the ageing Avro fleet of IAF. The project, under which the first 16 aircraft will be bought off-the-shelf and the rest 40 will be manufactured in India, breaks new ground by specifying that the foreign aviation major eventually selected will have to tie-up with an Indian private sector company to produce the planes. 

IAF to hold exercise with UK and France in 2014

Indian Air Force will conduct two joint air exercises , christened “Indradhanush” with the UK and “Garuda” with France, in 2014 with a gap of six months, sources said. The last exercise was held in 2010.    

       While the “Garuda” exercise with the French Air Force is likely to take place in the IAF base in Gwalior, the exercise with the Royal Air Force may happen in the RAF base in Waddington. Venue of the 2010 edition of “Indradhanush” was Kalaikunda, while “Garuda” was held in Istres, France.
         The exercises assume additional significance in the IAF training schedule after the last minute cancellation of “Exercise Red Flag” in July at the US Air Force (USAF) base in Nevada, sources said. The USAF has abandoned plans of holding the exercise citing budgetary constraints. Conceived after the Vietnam war, “Red Flag” is the world’s most challenging air-exercise that provides air force pilots with realistic combat experience. Participation in the exercise was earlier restricted to close US allies, but was extended to India after bilateral relations between New Delhi and Washington improved in the last decade.

IAF practices for twin-front contingency against China, Pak in biggest wargame

To make the forces ready for the twin-threat posed by China and Pakistan, the largest-ever combat exercise was undertaken by IAF. The main objective of the was to test its capability for a two-front contingency by deploying "swing forces'' from the western theatre right across to the eastern one.
       IAF did "extremely well'' during the 'Live-Wire' exercise, conducted from March 18 to April 4 with over 8,000 hours of flying sorties, to maintain the "high-tempo surge operations'' to "validate its two-front deployment capability''. Frontline Sukhoi-30MKIs even flew long-range missions from Chabua (Assam) to the western front, with mid-air refuelling, for bombing missions, sources said.
       

IAF flies double sorties and commandos to Naxalite areas

The Indian Air Force (IAF), which faced flak after its personnel abandoned an injured policeman in a chopper crippled in Naxalite firing, has now begun flying double sorties to many areas and more commandos for its air support missions in anti-naxalism operations to prevent such incidents.The sortie routes of the IAF helicopters are being sanitized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in advance and it has doubled the strength of on-board 'Garuda' commandos to four every time its Mi-17 choppers fly in remote and forested areas of Naxalite violence affected states, official sources said.

Helicopters of Indian Air Force

The Fighter Aircrafts of Indian Air Force