Philip wrote:The IN's amphib requirements were tailor-made for acquiring the US-2 ,wave conditions for take-off.There are sev. other equally good SAR amphibs much cheaper.
Go ahead name them.
The attempt was to draw the Indo-Jap security relationship closer.Japan has few goodies in her def. bag of tricks,apart from Soryu subs which we don not need as we operate N-subs and our building our own Scorpenes..
If you can't see the reality of the situ,where a potential $A100B deal is at stake with OZ,instead of a measly $1.5B deal with India,too bad. Japan wants that deal at any cost and is willing to ditch India,or make it so expensive that we drop the deal ourselves. Same result.That's the reality.
I
repeat - what is the connection between a submarine sale to Australia and a US-2 sale to India?!!
Has India asked Japan not to sell Soryus to Australia? Or has Australia asked Japan not sell US-2s to India?
Go on. I'm all ears.
Furthermore,we need a variety of amphibs ,for ASW,SAR,commns,firefighting,etc.,not just a blinkered vision of US-2s.Beriev,Bombardier,Dornier,etc. have various designs which we could look at.The Dornier design would be easy for us to manufacture here.
Nonsense. We have MPAs capable of ASW and that is good enough for us. We have
zero need to acquire amphibs for anti-sub ops. Nor is our Navy/Coast Guard involved in fire-fighting.
The Beriev isn't capable of STOL ops. And neither it, nor the Dornier, nor the Bombardier is capable of operating in rough waters. There
are alternatives to the US-2 (albeit less capable), but they come in the form of medium and heavy lift rotorcraft; S-60 & Chinook.
The issue of Backfires is as to where the IN can put its scarce money first,into projects/systems that make a real diff. when facing off with China.Backfires make more sense than US-2s, a higher priority.In fact sub-rescue vessels are long overdue given the age of our sub fleet and the new N-subs and Scorpenes on the anvil.
Backfires are a recipe for creating aircraft carcasses over Tibet. I'm yet to see one that can go head-to-head against a PLAAF Flanker and survive the experience. As far as the PLAN is concerned, it'll be at least a decade before it can deploy a CBG to the IOR. The Su-30MKIs can handle anything else in the meantime. Unlike the Russians & Chinese we're not facing a 24 carrier US Navy.
There
are indeed more pressing requirements for the country, the Tu-22M however is not one of them.
PPS:Just for the record .Why should we then build extra Scorpenes which will be inferior to the subs being offered to Oz?
How the hell is the US-2 proposal connected to that for follow-on Scorpenes?!! Mysterious ways, your minds works in..