Bharat Rakshak

@ Sanku Yup, that IS what you're saying, isn't it? That breaking a bad habit can only be done if some skulduggery's involved? That there's something wrong with the deal because: A) The IAF's selected a particular plane without going through an MMRCA-like circus. B ) Horror of horrors, we've actually...

@ bhavani Does it 5.8 billion for PR and muscle-flex, quite a costly affair. I'm not talking about PR in the sense of taking journalists out for a free lunch :D I'm talking in the sense of: A) Very visible relief operations. Sending a whacking huge plane like that with pictures of starving earthquak...

@ Sanku No hurry? Everyone in India agrees that 2008-2010 timeframe for transport purchases of 5.8 billion $ or so is perfectly par for the course in India? So what you're saying is that even if a process CAN be short and still effective, it SHOULD be delayed just because that's what we've been doin...

The truth's probably somewhere in the middle, no? Perhaps, yes, we've had to take the C-17s whether we needed them right now or not, but I suspect the AF must have done a bit of chin-scratching and thought, "Hmm, why not? It's not like any more IL-76s are being made right now - won't hurt to en...

Hmm. I could have looked at the wrong source, of course :D The Indian Navy is in the process of upgrading up to fifteen Sea Harriers in collaboration with Israel by installing the Elta EL/M-2032 radar and the Rafael 'Derby' medium range air to air missile.[61][62] This will enable the Sea Harrier to...

Philip, in the International Naval Discussion, says: I have suggested for decades that for all classes of warships larger than 10-12,000t,they should be flatotops,from where STOVL aircraft can operate.The Japanese and S.Koreans have done exactly that with their "pocket carriers" ,which wil...

Question: for the Brahmos and Nirbhay that will be integrated with the Su-30, what targetting system will be used?
Will they be using data-links with military satellites, or target-marking, or something else?

Also, are we looking only at single-seaters? Which versions of the SH, Rafale and F-16 have been offered?

Drevin, That's fine, makes sense, I expect. How would an air dominance battle go, though? Would we for example send our MKIs into TSP airspace, hoping to get the F-16s coming in towards us, and steadily take down their numbers, so that we can send our Mirages/Jaguars/Rafales in for strikes? In that ...

@ Philip
Agree, but I'd look at even more aircraft. We need a 'healthy' squadron strength of 45, but a projected 60 if we're really to control the IOR. It's how many, about 30 aircraft a squadron, including spares? So about 1,800? Whoa!

Hi Drevin, Thanks. I'm a bit confused here though, largely because of the possible Indian scenarios thread. The last one I read was Vivek Ahuja's India-China scenario, where we send strike fighters into Tibet. No real 'air dominance' had been established at that point. True, we'd hurled in some Brah...

Sorry, 'contradictory positions"???? rolls around laughing The US' biggest trade partner is China while it talks about a free world. It keeps giving vast amounts of cash to Pakistan though the war du jour is against terrorism. Its top Muslim ally is Saudi Arabia though KSA has interesting posit...

I'd eliminate the F-16 and Gripen. F-16: adds very little that's new, TSP has it, old plane, almost zero chance of further improvement unless there's a cross-deal with Israel or with Japan (Mitsubishi). Too much trouble for too little gain. F-16 'could lead to the F-35'? Why go for a plane we don't ...

N3ji, Absolutely... that's clear. But I was going beyond the obvious :) hence the "imagine the chinese thinking yada yada" However, how much do you think we'll be able to hide the new baby once sea trials start? And sorry, a newbie question: what measures would they use to mask/confuse the...

Bob, Thanks for the inputs. Another one though. Between the F-22 and the F-35, why is it that the air superiority jet gets better stealth than the strike one? As in (and I may be completely wrong here) isn't the strike jet the one that goes into enemy territory, facing radar, defending aircraft and ...

Sorry, a little late on the secrecy angle, but I actually like the way it's been handled. Fighters are very visible, and can be easily spotted (the only exception being the Soviet Union in the 60s and 70s, which could develop fighters within its own vast territory with no Peeping Toms around). The w...

Gurus, With regard to a multi-role fighter, especially one meant mainly for a strike/ground attack role, what characteristics would you favour: 1) High speed (even at low altitudes), possibly even supercruise, for quick in-out missions and anti-shipping roles 2) Low speed and high range, with good l...

Krish, Nice job - what software is this? Coming to the design, I'd think the hump would be flatter, given that it's the portal for the SLBMs/SLCMs, and it won't have such a pronounced 'spearhead' shape (as seen from the top view), more likely a simple rectangle, or at least more elongated, a gentle ...

re astute's shape... it's very unusual, no? definitely nothing like a teardrop. also, why is it said to be so advanced? and in any case, The launching of Astute was 43 months behind schedule, and the Astute class were £900 million over budget we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves then, if things sti...

Mods, can we have a thread where older BRFites go through military fiction and gauge it on accuracy? For non defence/ defence-industry people like me, much of our initial knowledge comes from fiction (Forsyth's 'The Fist of God' springs to mind), and we don't really have a way to tell whether the in...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009 ... mindia.php

i read this in the comments: "f-22 can't fly in the rain" ... true?

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/india/atv.htm i LOVE the india-bashing on this site... and i love even more the extent to which they got it wrong: the ATV was purely a technology demonstration project which will never become an operational vessel and never be commissioned into service. Even ...

Possibly a silly question: twin vertical stabilisers (fins, to keep it short) are supposed to help manoeuvreability in fighters, yes? If so, why do some modern twin-engined fighters stick to a single fin? eg Rafale, Typhoon. Also, are there any, even TDs, of single-engined, twin-finned fighters? Wha...

Moderators, please move this to the newbie thread if you feel the need. Anyway, I know the PAK-FA/FGFA is fairly shadowy, but... I believe the forward-swept wing shown on the Berkut TD offered significant aero advantages, but had structural problems that could only be solved with advanced composites...

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/brazil-embarking-upon-f-x2-fighter-program-04179/ almost identical competition to ours, the writeup speaks a bit more about the political problems. looking at brazil's options, i can't imagine them going for anything but the rafale. or the IAF selecting anything e...

why in the MRCA thread?

^^^ because they're russian, maybe? :D reliability, parts, etc - france i believe has been pretty good re the mirage any thoughts though on how this places the rafale in the MMRCA playoffs? as in, could go either way: india going for a much stronger eco-political relationship with france, taking the...

Sorry, been off this for a bit. Two questions: 1) If indeed we need to go for the GE 414 or Ej2000, do you think it will require substantial redesign of the LCA? If that is the case, how many years does that set us back? 2) MCA-related, not LCA. Just came across the wind-tunnel model shown at AI09 -...

Two cents. I've been reading Shiv Aroor's series on MMRCA competitors, and it was interesting that the IAF would apparently have been perfectly happy with a set of Mirages. In that case, why didn't they simply order about 60 Mirages, to be delivered post-haste, and then go through this leisurely pro...

Dear Vivek/ Shankar, Could either of you come up with a scenario where India takes on Zimbabwe? I could see this happening: India will want to test her transoceanic strike ability, and bolster her image as an emerging superpower, and getting rid of Robert Mugabe would be a great PR exercise. We'd pr...

Jagan,
Many thanks.
I was about eight I think when it first aired on DD (missed the Kargil-era rerun of this episode), and pretty much every enemy was a Pakistani
The Poona Horse bit I remember must have been on another segment.

Can someone help me with this? 'Param Vir Chakra' on DD had a segment about an armoured corps officer, possibly attached to poona horse, who brings down a PAF aircraft with a carbine, and earns his PVC by crawling ahead of the CO's tank and manually identifying/neutralising landmines. And I believe ...

vivek_ahuja

guilty as charged... got thoroughly foxed by shankar's story and skipped right to the end... zero time to read anything right now, but great that you're working on something

Could someone look at a fresh scenario, possibly in the 2012-2015 timeline, featuring the Tejas, the new MRCA we're looking for (if inducted by then), and possibly the Arjun MBT? Why not throw in the ATV and/or the Akulas we're supposed to be getting as well? (On that note, is the Akula story true?)...