Airborne Early Warning & Control: News & Discussion

[Atmavik]

Pakistan AF did not "build" anything they bought off the shelf from Sweden and China ..and the Chinese stuff was just junk. guys chill. The Indian AWACS / AEW&C would be a much more capable and cutting-edge platform

The top brass dropped the ball. their role is to plan and acquire platforms to maintain the edge. we are repeating the same mistake with ATAGS now.

[Prem Kumar]

The latest AoN is a breath of fresh air. Total 30 aircraft approved, out of which 15 are MRMR, 3 COMINT/SIGINT, 6 Netra 1a, 6 refuellers

All 30 are force multipliers!

But

1) AoNs have to translate to orders. ATAGS AoN was issued in Jan 2023. The order is still to materialize, following which deliveries will start after its own lead time

2) Even 6 more Netras are an insufficient for a 2 front war. They will barely give us parity vis-a-vis Pakistan, while we should have had overmatch against that beggar nation and should be threatening China on the sheer # of birds we can put up against her in a sector

3) Repeated IAF Chiefs indeed dropped the ball. Even more egregious, considering how much actual war experience with AEWs they actually got during 2019 Balakot. Just like the IA, they don't even learn from their own experience. Their MRFA tunnel-vision has clouded their thinking

[Cain Marko]

My guess is that they preferred s400 + rafale combo over force multipliers. But they could have easily ordered additional 3 Netra systems IMHO.

[Prem Kumar]

Given that they are scrambling now, it means that their thinking was wrong. Its hard to understand how an S-400 + Rafale combo will give you full air picture, guide fighters etc. Plus we dont have enough of either to assume we have achieved area denial versus even Pakistan

Its unfathomable how often the armchair pundits are proven right, while our super-duper fighter jockeys and West Point thinkers cannot get the basics right!

[srai]

“No Plan B” was how it was stated as an ultimatum on obtaining the MMRCA … even when it was obviously unaffordable

[Cain Marko]

Given that they are scrambling now, it means that their thinking was wrong. Its hard to understand how an S-400 + Rafale combo will give you full air picture, guide fighters etc. Plus we dont have enough of either to assume we have achieved area denial versus even Pakistan

Its unfathomable how often the armchair pundits are proven right, while our super-duper fighter jockeys and West Point thinkers cannot get the basics right!

Yeah. And it's not just the authorize brass either. IMHO the Navy strung along the nlca (and scored massive brownie points in the name of being indigenius) knowing fully well that they'd drop the ball in short order. Very cleverly put the blame squarely on the "inadequacy" of the platform.
The less said about army procurement, the better