Bharat Rakshak

Came across this insightful piece in today's The Tribune. Couldn't find a thread for Dhruv, hence posting here: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/govt-must-look-into-safety-issues-with-dhruv-487709 It's written by Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (Retd), Former Additional Director General, ...

Of course it can be done with 2 engine planes as well. Rafales first flew with the engines from the Tornado fighters, and then when the M-88 was developed, one of the RB-199s was replaced with an M-88. Rafale flew with GE F 404 (not RB-199) initially. From wiki: The demonstrator was initially power...

IAF expresses discomfiture over the decision to limit Rafale purchase 36 Rafale not enough, IAF uneasy Day after Parrikar said 126 jets ‘too many’, Air Force raises concern over depleting fleet Ajay Banerjee Tribune News Service New Delhi, June 1 Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s decision to buy ...

Any idea if the Mirage upgrade cost will come down given that now only 49 planes have to be upgraded instead of 51?

Came across this news item in today's Tribune. Felt quite pleased with the contents. According to the report, if the Defence Ministry grants Tata-Sikorsky JV company the license it is seeking, as much as 80% of S-92/H-92 will be produced in India. That seems better than the local content on Dhruv! A...

the M88 engine was I believe tested on either a twin engined MirageIV ? Dont know that. However, the Rafale first flew with the Tornado's Rb199 engines. Rafale first flew with GE F404 engines. The first flight with M88 used only one M88, F404 being retained as the other engine, just in case things ...

haryanvi wrote:The final figure for Jaguar in IAF is somewhere between the originally planned 200 and the Indira-dictated figure of 116.

It seems sometime in the 1990s, IAF placed additional orders (partly to replace lost planes) and that's how the figure moved beyond 116.

thank you haryanvi Ji that answers all my questions so it was more of politics for going for two types of jets hope history don't repeat in MMRCA I don't know whether there was more of politics or less but yes, politics was definitely involved. Looking back, I feel Mig 23/27 was a bad choice. It wo...

IIRC, The MiG27 entered Indian Air Force service around 1985/1987. The role envisaged for this bird was to provide short range tactical air support and to carry out BAI just behind theforward edge of the battlefield. Gurus, please correct me if I am mistaken. Vignesh ji if the mig 27 was inducted i...

Apparently, the issue is that the Russians are not letting us use Indian tyres and insisting that we only source from them, and then not being able to provide them. I think the guys who write our contracts need to be smarter and not accept such clauses while contracting, and the operators and babus...

Read in today's Tribune: Sources told The Tribune that the Russians wanted hundred of crores to modify the lethal Sukhoi-30-MKI fighter. Today, Pillai admitted that drawings of the fighter’s design were with the Russians. “We are seeing if we can make adjustments to the fighter. However, the first p...

That's F-5/F-20 Tigershark. It was offered to India after Pakistan had already been offered the F-16 and the deal signed. The US offered to shift the entire production line to India. Predicably, India declined the offer.

ThE IAF old strength was 45 squadrons when did it become 39.5 squadrons? Did they phase out earlier than the acqusisiton? ramana ji 39.5 sqdn is IAF's sanctioned strength for a long time now, close to two decades if memory serves right. there have been talk of 45 sqdn and even an eventual force of ...