Bharat Rakshak

vivek_ahuja

Regarding Ru/ Sov. era missiles, most conflicts where they came off second best was generally with vastly inferior nations opposed to the US,like Iraq for instance. Israel has always had superior aircraft and weaponry thanks to US largesse, than its Arab neighbours. When in the hands of competent m...

vivek_ahuja

The presence of the French defence minister -- who is supposed to have come with a 'big team', is a clear indicator that GOI is planning to slip in a 'googly' of an order under the current 'Fog of war' at the LAC. The LCA programme is here to stay in various forms, and it's definitely going to be a...

vivek_ahuja

I would very much love to see more than 200 LCA in the IAF inventory. But looking at the current situation, if the govt. does not have funds for both, I would rather have another 36 Rafale (or maybe 50). If the government can afford both i'm more than happy. I'm not saying to completely scrap the o...

vivek_ahuja

^^^Just be happy Rajnath Singh didn't touch French Defence Minister's feet. I admit I have not seen IAF induction ceremonies in the past, but watching clips of this on TV was cringeworthy at best. Indian govt may be hyping up the Rafale to make it politically easier to order the next batch of 36. H...

vivek_ahuja

The concern is that the AMRAAM is built on the experience gained from the combat experience of the early generation of AMRAAMs, Phoenix and Sparrows etc.. By comparison, Russian AAMs have typically had a dismal performance in the field and their truly powerful Soviet versions were never tested in c...

vivek_ahuja

I was taken aback at the above points too. The Heron guys would routinely drum up SATCOM capability in every presentation, the world leading EO tech they had etc. And all this while we were apparently operating w/o them and likely using the dedicated LOS datalinks? Or autonomous mode. Just makes on...

vivek_ahuja

Some American general probably said this 'unsinkable aircraft carrier' thing in public, now everyone keeps repeating it without giving it any thought. You are on to something. The term “unsinkable carrier” shouldn’t be part or any honest or intelligent conversation about force projection, defense o...

vivek_ahuja

What is the increase in payload of LUH at siachen compared to Cheetah? From Sonam post for e.g.? Here's a link to the theoretical analysis I had done back in the day for the LUH: The Beta Coefficient Blog Use this plot to extrapolate the payload capacity for a given altitude. Read the article above...

vivek_ahuja

BTW, as we have seen with the Rafale saga, the IAF has no issues in defending its intents/decisions publicly when it is fully behind a project near its heart. I have yet to see any such public displays of affection for the Netra to get it over the GoI ban-list.

vivek_ahuja

Look I'm all for criticizing the forces when it is warranted but it's getting too much in this thread. I and other posters have mentioned several times that more Netra orders are impossible because Embraer has been blacklisted. The IAF can do nothing about this beyond pleading to the MoD. From what...

vivek_ahuja

Interesting thought if something like that happens it would put tremendous pressure on China, because China would not want any type of US presence on their southern and western border. In fact China might stop the current aggression, at the some time PAF would be grounded to (my uneducated opinion)...

vivek_ahuja

For the three strike corps as it gives one regiment on tracks. (3x8 guns+ 1x8 reserve) That seriously does not sound enough, unless it is being used at corps level. I believe in the democratization of artillery: i.e. the ability of junior officers to be able to call for mobile artillery support as ...

vivek_ahuja

Chola, nam: careful that you guys aren't accidentally derailing the purpose of this thread. Do we really need full-size movie posters in your comments?

vivek_ahuja

nachiket wrote:I was being sarcastic and referring to the fact that the NAMICA has been thoroughly ignored in all this.

I, for one, found it hilarious that even in response to your sarcasm about the NAMICA being ignored, Manish_P offered all sorts of import options from around the world.

Oh the irony!

vivek_ahuja

The second and third sub are expected to carry 8 K4 missiles, as opposed to 12 B05 or 4-K4 for the Arihant. If the K4 has 3 MIRV warheads then it would mean 24 warheads per sub. Hope multiple warheads are being worked on. Multiple warheads would required miniaturization of size of the warheads. Tha...

vivek_ahuja

Where be the backfires? That's my question. And dare I say, comrade Phillipovs as well. In the meanwhile, the MKIs will have to shoulder on.... The Backfires? They will be in the Russian Air Force/Navy. We are talking about the Indian Navy. Let's be realistic. If the MKIs are the long-range attack ...

vivek_ahuja

Aditya_V wrote:91KN is only sligthly more pwoerful than the Ge404-In, so dry thrust should be in the 58KN range. Given the all metal nature of JF-17 with single engine it would not be able to Supercruise.

But what does it to to the Thrust-to-Weight ratio for the JF-17?

vivek_ahuja

Regarding engines, it looks like the following is indeed expected for the Nirbhay/ITCM: Wiki: GTRE is developing a new 4.25 kN thrust turbofan engine to power Nirbhay Cruise missile and future UAV, Long range AshM cruise missile systems. GTRE is working fast to add test capabilities and infrastructu...

vivek_ahuja

Because we don't have the subsystems! Where are the engines? Where is the proven seeker? Where are the multiple trials for both? That is the part we have to complete. Just curious: what made the engines used for the TD Nirbhay very unique? I was under the impression that we purchased/used some Russ...

vivek_ahuja

Such a beautiful-looking UAV, too. Just look how clean and elegant it is. Locally customize-able and upgrade-able.

All being wasted at the altar of imports.

vivek_ahuja

Quote from the above link Rustom-II (Tapas), the medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from Aeronautical Development Establishment flew in the Satellite Communication (SATCOM) mode for the first time. https://www.onmanorama.com/content/dam/mm/en/news/nation/images/2020...

vivek_ahuja

On the issue of Chinese copying culture: An interesting comment I heard on an interview of the former Google VP for China: he said that the copying culture is so ingrained in Chinese industry that it is impossible for a new startup there to raise VC money without the product being a direct copy of s...

vivek_ahuja

Added Derby to that list. Thanks!

vivek_ahuja

Of course, the Derby! I will edit the list above.

So many missiles in the inventory that I am losing track of them. God knows how the IAF expects to fight a war with such diverse logistics.

vivek_ahuja

Again coming back from the IAF thread, Question: How many Astra Mk-1s have been ordered? Has this been made public? It also brought up a question in my head: how many AAMs does an air-force need per-airframe in its inventory? If there are 200+ Su-30s, 200+ LCAs, Mirage-2000s and Mig-29s, how many As...

vivek_ahuja

Indian Baby-boomers are a real win for the Indian Navy and for India. With three subs either on the way or almost ready for deployment, it makes for a decent second-strike capability.

Are there plans to scale the missile carriage count of these boomers with follow-on subs?

vivek_ahuja

So from the IAF thread discussion, here is an initial list of IAF 2020s BVR missiles : R-27 (and its variants) R-77 AE (expired? Ukranian?) R-77-1/ RVV-SD Meteor Astra Mk-1 + Mk-2 SFDR Mica-RF Derby Which one of these is the LCA expected to be compatible with? Have we seen carriage trials, firings o...

vivek_ahuja

Philip: I doubt there will be any intention of invading or capturing the islands. Once the runways are knocked out on A&N, that is the end of air cover. That leaves only the ground-launched cruise missiles (Brahmos) which will have limited range and which the Indian military would probably not r...

vivek_ahuja

@Nachiket: Thanks!

So the corrected list for the IAF 2020s BVR missiles :

R-27 (and its variants)
R-77 AE (expired? Ukranian?)
R-77-1/ RVV-SD
Meteor
Astra Mk-1 + Mk-2
SFDR
Mica-RF
Edit: Derby (see discussion below)

vivek_ahuja

ks_sachin wrote:
vivek_ahuja wrote:
This is good news. They need to retired and their experienced pilots transitioned to the LCA as soon as possible.
First we have to get the LCA's in the air!!!

First we have to get the LCAs ordered!

vivek_ahuja

The answer to your second question is NO. The IAF has a variety of missiles from various countries i.e. Meteor from France, R-77 from Russia, Astra from India and Derby from Israel. The civilian rationale would be --> why not standardize on one missile type? But the IAF does like to have its platfo...

vivek_ahuja

Throughout late 90S and late 2000's, MOD was "saving money", by buying cheaper Ukrainian R-77 AE missiles, The Russians also started inducting the R-77-1 only around 2015, post 27-Feb-19, we quickly inducted the R-77 SD since we realized the necessity while Astra numbers come online, the ...

vivek_ahuja

For Radar Guided Missiles (and not IR guided), it helps to have missiles from multiple vendors with different algorithms/electronics. You never know which system has been compromised and vulnerable to ECMs. With multiple sources, your AF has some inbuilt resiliency. And if the same platform can car...

vivek_ahuja

Btw, to put the dwindling squadron numbers into perspective, we already have the oldest Bisons being retired now. Here's a post from the Warbirds of India Twitter handle about one Bison which has showed up as a warbird This is good news. They need to retired and their experienced pilots transitione...

vivek_ahuja

But that aside, let's not underestimate the venerable bison. It has proved itself in exercises against both usaf and rsaf top of the line f16s, and finally against paf in 2019. Not the best situation to be in, yes. But given the constraints, the IAF did a great job upgrading the fishbed, the bird i...

vivek_ahuja

If the IA is purchasing Hellfires for the handful of Apaches, then they should absolutely be integrated with the LCH for the day when the Apaches are out of action or are not available given their very limited numbers. So aside from the delays in locking down the 15 LCHs, have the armed forces at le...

vivek_ahuja

The R-77-1 remains a mystery for me. Supposedly it has refinements over the older model. But what about range? It is only slightly longer-range than the older-model R-77s. Is the Astra too far behind? R-77-1 has a published range of 110 km. Depending on source, Astra Mk1 has a range of 110 km in he...

vivek_ahuja

https://twitter.com/Maverick_bharat/status/1299953272497688576 Kalyani M4 spotted in Ladakh Smiling face with sunglasses That is a nice looking vehicle. So how does it work with these Joint Ventures? Is the cost per-vehicle then cheaper than if they purchased it directly from the OEM? What is Kalya...

vivek_ahuja

Isn't there also a cost difference involved, i.e. cost of acquiring one Arjun for one T-90? If the IA cannot find money to buy a half-squadron of Apaches for the whole army, I think it is safe to say that they are cash strapped. And if the are cash strapped, replacing lots of logistical equipment to...

vivek_ahuja

The T-72 and T-90 were built precisely for the european (cold) theater for large scale armour waves, where the Russians expected to lose tanks to better Western European hardware, but sought to prevail through numbers. Is that how we expect to fight in the Thar desert with 50 degree heat in an unco...

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