Indian Air Force News & Discussion - 15 Dec 2016

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 02 Nov 2019 00:40

tsarkar wrote:
LakshmanPST wrote:can't they continue operating it for another 5-6 years as a Strike aircraft just to maintain nos....?
Engine spares unavailable from OEM. The Sea Harrier was decommissioned for same reason. Both types had undergone extensive avionics upgrades that are completely going waste.

Exactly, the avionics upgrade wasn't that long ago. And the aircraft could have remained usable and combat capable if not for the engine issues. Back in the early 2000's there was a proposal to re-engine the Mig-27 with the AL-31F. But it would have required structural changes including modified intakes and the Russians insisted it could only be performed in Russia. I'm sure it would have cost a pretty penny as well and the IAF wasn't interested (they were expecting the induction of 126 MRCA's in a few years anyway at that point). Looking at the reliability issues we faced with the AL-31's on the MKI fleet this would have ended badly had it been done so we probably dodged a bullet there.

Cain Marko · Post by **Cain Marko** » 02 Nov 2019 02:20

nachiket wrote:
tsarkar wrote: Engine spares unavailable from OEM. The Sea Harrier was decommissioned for same reason. Both types had undergone extensive avionics upgrades that are completely going waste.
Exactly, the avionics upgrade wasn't that long ago. And the aircraft could have remained usable and combat capable if not for the engine issues. Back in the early 2000's there was a proposal to re-engine the Mig-27 with the AL-31F. But it would have required structural changes including modified intakes and the Russians insisted it could only be performed in Russia. I'm sure it would have cost a pretty penny as well and the IAF wasn't interested (they were expecting the induction of 126 MRCA's in a few years anyway at that point). Looking at the reliability issues we faced with the AL-31's on the MKI fleet this would have ended badly had it been done so we probably dodged a bullet there.

Will the upgraded mirage 2000s have engine issues one wonders, would have to see it wasted like the Shar. We will still be insisting dash 5m2ks when most other users are starting to get rid of them...

Reg. The al31 fiasco, didn't the lost decade under UPA have something to do with spares availability?

Maybe my fantasy of having al31s on the m2k will come true....

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 02 Nov 2019 02:52

Cain Marko wrote: Will the upgraded mirage 2000s have engine issues one wonders, would have to see it wasted like the Shar. We will still be insisting dash 5m2ks when most other users are starting to get rid of them...

Do still we have any with Dash 5 engines? I thought we replaced the engines on the initial lot with -P2's.

Reg. The al31 fiasco, didn't the lost decade under UPA have something to do with spares availability?
Maybe my fantasy of having al31s on the m2k will come true....

Yes spares support issues were present. But the original problem was higher number of engine failures than expected and necessity for more frequent overhauls as a result. But the MKI could fly back on a single engine. If this had happened in the Mig-27 it would be a crash every time.

AL-31's on M2k's is a nice fantasy (it would give it a cool Mig-29/F-16esque T:W ratio) but it will remain a fantasy unfortunately.

I have always felt the M53 was a somewhat disappointing product from the French when compared to its peers like the PW F100 and AL-31F in terms of performance. Reliability is a different story however.

Cain Marko · Post by **Cain Marko** » 02 Nov 2019 03:04

nachiket wrote:
Cain Marko wrote: Will the upgraded mirage 2000s have engine issues one wonders, would have to see it wasted like the Shar. We will still be insisting dash 5m2ks when most other users are starting to get rid of them...
Do still we have any with Dash 5 engines? I thought we replaced the engines on the initial lot with -P2's.

Reg. The al31 fiasco, didn't the lost decade under UPA have something to do with spares availability?
Maybe my fantasy of having al31s on the m2k will come true....
Yes spares support issues were present. But the original problem was higher number of engine failures than expected and necessity for more frequent overhauls as a result. But the MKI could fly back on a single engine. If this had happened in the Mig-27 it would be a crash every time.

AL-31's on M2k's is a nice fantasy (it would give it a cool Mig-29/F-16esque T:W ratio) but it will remain a fantasy unfortunately.

I have always felt the M53 was a somewhat disappointing product from the French when compared to its peers like the PW F100 and AL-31F in terms of performance. Reliability is a different story however.

The dash 5s all used the p2s iirc and they are now being considered for offloading by many countries... UAE, Taiwan and France itself. Thing is iaf is still inducting these birds. While avionics wise they'll still be tip top, how will the engines be maintained? Hope it's not like the lush shars again, it's too important an asset.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 02 Nov 2019 03:12

Cain Marko wrote: The dash 5s all used the p2s iirc and they are now being considered for offloading by many countries... UAE, Taiwan and France itself. Thing is iaf is still inducting these birds. While avionics wise they'll still be tip top, how will the engines be maintained? Hope it's not like the lush shars again, it's too important an asset.

Oops. I thought you meant the original M53-5 (Dash 5) engines not the M2k-5 variant.

Yes I had the same doubt about the engines after the upgrade that you do. Maybe the IAF has made the necessary assessments and pre-ordered extra spares.

Rakesh · Post by **Rakesh** » 02 Nov 2019 03:21

https://twitter.com/zone5aviation/statu ... 9230989319 ---> After 38 years in uniform and 5,100 flying hours across types (an incredible 2300 hours on Mirage 2000s alone!), Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar hangs up his uniform today. A veteran of the 1999 Kargil Conflict and an accomplished test pilot, he retires as AOC-in-C Western Air Command.

Rakesh · Post by **Rakesh** » 02 Nov 2019 03:23

https://twitter.com/DefencePROPalam/sta ... 3191672833 ---> Air Marshal B Suresh took over as the AOC-in-C, Western Air Command today morning. The Air Marshal reviewed a ceremonial Guard of Honour & thereafter outlined his vision for the Western Air Command in consonance with the objectives of the IAF and the nation.

https://twitter.com/DefencePROPalam/sta ... 4555111425 ---> Air Marshal B Suresh is an alumnus of NDA, he was commissioned as a fighter pilot in the IAF on 13 Dec 1980. During his illustrious career, he has held a number of coveted command & staff appointments. Before taking over as AOC-in-C WAC, he was AOC-in-C SAC.

Kartik · Post by **Kartik** » 02 Nov 2019 04:17

LakshmanPST wrote:I know it is IAF's decision, and they obviously know what they're doing... But I have a doubt...
----
The latest MIG 27s were inducted after 1986... They're around 30 years old... I guess they have few more years left in their airframe life...
The canon may have become redundant, but why can't they use the jets for other roles... When the squadron strength is low, can't they continue operating it for another 5-6 years as a Strike aircraft just to maintain nos....?

Even with some airframe life possibly left (Total Technical Life of 3000 hrs), the decision to retire the MiG-27 UPG also makes sense to me because pilots/technicians can all be moved and converted to existing types, especially MKI squadrons that need more manpower than other types. There are still 2 more MKI squadrons to be formed based on the number of MKIs that have to be delivered to the IAF by HAL out of the 272 ordered.

The MiG-27 UPG, even with the upgrade is a very limited single role jet. It's primary mission, air to ground interdiction and CAS, is risky in today's battlefield with the IAF also moving towards stand off attacks as much as possible. It cannot defend itself, it carried air to surface weapons that were almost exclusively of Russian origin and must've been running out of shelf life themselves. Litening LDP integration was done and it could carry LGBs (see image below) but I'm not sure how good the aircraft was at mission profiles that required medium to high altitude stand off strike. The MiG-27 was too long in the tooth to be integrated with the newer bombs coming into service like HSLD, Spice 2000, etc.

So basically the way I see it, the primary issues that would have driven its retirement:

1- Poor attrition rate for the type. the MiG-23 and MiG-27 have the worst attrition rate of all IAF fast jets. Far worse than the MiG-21 that gets maligned with all sorts of name calling. Remember, the attrition rate is measured on the basis of number of crashes (or writeoffs) per 10,000 hours.

2- the IAF is the last Air Force using MiG-27s. Spares will now be harder to come by as there is no other customer for the OEM, MiG. Whatever spares could be indigenised would be, but many would be very hard to come by

3- Higher workload for pilots, with poor flexibility for taking on mission profiles that it wasn't designed for. All other types in service now, are far more flexible and can take on multiple combat roles.

naird · Post by **naird** » 07 Nov 2019 04:47

Another fantastic podcast. Do give a listen. These guys are doing a great job. Nothing new - but just listening to the classifications of AtoA missions is pretty insightful. Also the pilot confirms Balakot scenario - of fighters hiding in mountain valleys and surprising the adversaries. This podcast was recorded a year back but pretty much gave out the scenario of how Abhi surprised Pakis !

tandav · Post by **tandav** » 07 Nov 2019 09:14

I am disappointed... Lack of Fitness apparent from the pics from IAF. Most folks seem to have a paunch.

Khalsa · Post by **Khalsa** » 07 Nov 2019 14:59

I second you there.

kit · Post by **kit** » 07 Nov 2019 15:52

tandav wrote:I am disappointed... Lack of Fitness apparent from the pics from IAF. Most folks seem to have a paunch.

the fighter pilots seem to be more fit though., are these chaps in the "transport" sections

ArjunPandit · Post by **ArjunPandit** » 07 Nov 2019 15:54

kartikji,

what happens to the retired planes' engines? are they left as showcases or can they be used for some reverse engineering or performance benchmarking or just for exploration to those who wish to explore (not that many would be interested).

ArjunPandit · Post by **ArjunPandit** » 07 Nov 2019 15:55

kit wrote:
tandav wrote:I am disappointed... Lack of Fitness apparent from the pics from IAF. Most folks seem to have a paunch.
the fighter pilots seem to be more fit though., are these chaps in the "transport" sections

i had a tenant who said he was mig29 fighter, he was no better. In a way this is a desk job too

just that the desk moves quite fast...

kit · Post by **kit** » 07 Nov 2019 15:57

ArjunPandit wrote:
kit wrote:
the fighter pilots seem to be more fit though., are these chaps in the "transport" sections
i had a tenant who said he was mig29 fighter, he was no better. In a way this is a desk job too just that the desk moves quite fast...

those desks do pull 5 and 7 Gs though, do they have the stomach

for it ?

ArjunPandit · Post by **ArjunPandit** » 07 Nov 2019 16:05

bigger stomachs to pull bigger g? or is it a big paunch for a big punch?

Manish_P · Post by **Manish_P** » 07 Nov 2019 21:19

^ i thought short fat guys had advantage in pulling Gs

@ 1:02 onwards

Kartik · Post by **Kartik** » 07 Nov 2019 23:08

tandav wrote:I am disappointed... Lack of Fitness apparent from the pics from IAF. Most folks seem to have a paunch.

Almost all of the men are airmen and not fighter pilots. Do you see pilots wings on their shirts to tell you that they’re pilots?

Kartik · Post by **Kartik** » 08 Nov 2019 03:24

Twitter link

Airbus still talking to Indian government about AWACS having already been selected once (with A330). Also bidding for tanker with A330 MRTT having won competition twice already. Alberto Gutierrez Head of Mil Aircraft believes A400M is right size airlifter for India. #AirbusTMB

Twitter link

Airbus ‘optimistic and confident’ about existing efforts in India. Hoke: “We’ve been running campaigns there for a decade.” Adding, “Avro contract is important. We’d build 16 C295s in Europe and 40 with Tatra in India.” He believes there is market for 150 C295s there. #AirbusTMB

Picklu · Post by **Picklu** » 08 Nov 2019 19:58

nachiket wrote:Picklu saar I was unaware of Fl Lt Chibber. Will report to re-education camp asap.

BTW, Kaiser Tufail tried to downplay the incident in his blog post by saying that this: "There were a few cases of F-16s and Mirage-2000s locking their adversaries with the on-board radars, but caution usually prevailed and no close encounters took place."

He does not mention the Mig-29 incident and fails to say what exactly the F-16's were supposed to do with a radar lock since they carried no radar guided missiles unlike their IAF counterparts which did.

Sorry for being late, work pressure as usual.

Kaisar Tufail used to participate in ACIG forum then and casually admitted the spanking paf received including the pant browning part. In multiple long posts, too.
The paki members were shocked; gave good amount of "traitor", "national secret", "h&d", "izlam khatrey me hai" etc etc.

Someone must have reported this to PAF HQ because after a few days he deleted all his posts and deleted his profile in the forum as well. His blog, came up much later, gives a very sanitized info.

ACIG got hacked and went offline after sometime. May be the oldies and folks like Tom Cooper would remember this. The best person to remember the same, B. Harry, is no more unfortunately, a loss that still causes pain

Again, sorry for coming back onto this but such memories of IAF spanking PAF need to be kept alive in the public (i am sure IAF insiders have a lot more but not public) else we give a free hand to "MM Alam superman" & "PAF won 1971 but PA lost the war" folks.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 09 Nov 2019 21:24

JTull · Post by **JTull** » 09 Nov 2019 21:54

Roop · Post by **Roop** » 09 Nov 2019 22:36

A YouTube video from Shiv:

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 09 Nov 2019 23:16

The pilots name was Ceasar. He would spell it differently as I recall, Ceaser or some such thing. Not sure whether it was Tufail or someone else because he appeared far less jingoistic than Tufail. On the Indian side, a pilot under the handle of Balderdash was a participant, a Mirage 2000 veteran. The story was that two F-16s were locked on, and a young greenhorn panicked badly, and was roundly laughed at back on landing. On Jagans blog, an IAF veteran posted and noted it was he who had locked on two F-16s while Chibber was his wingman.

Picklu wrote:
nachiket wrote:Picklu saar I was unaware of Fl Lt Chibber. Will report to re-education camp asap.

BTW, Kaiser Tufail tried to downplay the incident in his blog post by saying that this: "There were a few cases of F-16s and Mirage-2000s locking their adversaries with the on-board radars, but caution usually prevailed and no close encounters took place."

He does not mention the Mig-29 incident and fails to say what exactly the F-16's were supposed to do with a radar lock since they carried no radar guided missiles unlike their IAF counterparts which did.
Sorry for being late, work pressure as usual.

Kaisar Tufail used to participate in ACIG forum then and casually admitted the spanking paf received including the pant browning part. In multiple long posts, too.
The paki members were shocked; gave good amount of "traitor", "national secret", "h&d", "izlam khatrey me hai" etc etc.

Someone must have reported this to PAF HQ because after a few days he deleted all his posts and deleted his profile in the forum as well. His blog, came up much later, gives a very sanitized info.

ACIG got hacked and went offline after sometime. May be the oldies and folks like Tom Cooper would remember this. The best person to remember the same, B. Harry, is no more unfortunately, a loss that still causes pain

Again, sorry for coming back onto this but such memories of IAF spanking PAF need to be kept alive in the public (i am sure IAF insiders have a lot more but not public) else we give a free hand to "MM Alam superman" & "PAF won 1971 but PA lost the war" folks.

Zynda · Post by **Zynda** » 13 Nov 2019 22:33

There are rumors floating that an air show is scheduled to be held in Lucknow in Feb 2020. Kinda recompense for UP from NaMo for not shifting AI location from BLR to UP in 19 itself? If we take costs issues out, another air show in a different part of the country is actually welcoming. Helps to spread awareness and goodwill of IAF/Indian armed forces even to a greater extent. BTW, Feb 2020 will be anniversary of Balakot...perhaps IAF will declassify or show some snippets of the strike as well as the air battle that ensued on Feb 27th.

chola · Post by **chola** » 14 Nov 2019 16:25

To the rest of the Rakshaks: Are we entering a Golden Age of MII for the Air Force?

We have in ACM Bhadauria, so recently installed in just September, already flying in a HTT-40'and making statement encouraging that AMCA is "must have" for the IAF.

Here is a champion, at the highest level of the IAF, for indigenous aircraft!

With the HTT-40, Tejas MK1, MK1A, MWF and AMCA projects, I can't recall a more exhilarating time since the LCA kicked off some two decades ago.

Is it just me? I feel high like a kite but maybe reality would set in later . . .

kit · Post by **kit** » 14 Nov 2019 17:01

chola wrote:To the rest of the Rakshaks: Are we entering a Golden Age of MII for the Air Force?

We have in ACM Bhadauria, so recently installed in just September, already flying in a HTT-40'and making statement encouraging that AMCA is "must have" for the IAF.

Here is a champion, at the highest level of the IAF, for indigenous aircraft!

With the HTT-40, Tejas MK1, MK1A, MWF and AMCA projects, I can't recall a more exhilarating time since the LCA kicked off some two decades ago.

Is it just me? I feel high like a kite but maybe reality would set in later . . .

i can confidently predict indian talent and jugaad literally flying to the stars with the AMCA and its iterations .. yes the AirForce would have truly arrived with Indian talent on board

ArjunPandit · Post by **ArjunPandit** » 14 Nov 2019 17:13

^108 chola, with MARD at helm. Even CoAS has said 'we'll fight the next war with indigenous weapons'. Things are turning a corner, esp in IAF side. IA will be a long drawn process because of size and legacy issues...

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 15 Nov 2019 06:14

ArjunPandit wrote:
kit wrote:
the fighter pilots seem to be more fit though., are these chaps in the "transport" sections
i had a tenant who said he was mig29 fighter, he was no better. In a way this is a desk job too just that the desk moves quite fast...

If your tenant was a MiG-29 fighter, was he an upgrade? The upgrade carries the belly tank as standard, you see.

tandav wrote:I am disappointed... Lack of Fitness apparent from the pics from IAF. Most folks seem to have a paunch.

Most of the senior guys are in their mid-late 50's, are not active duty pilots and they look reasonably fit for their age. The rest are ground staff, a sprinkling of overweight folks there, i agree.

hnair · Post by **hnair** » 15 Nov 2019 15:53

Karan M wrote:Most of the senior guys are in their mid-late 50's, are not active duty pilots and they look reasonably fit for their age. The rest are ground staff, a sprinkling of overweight folks there, i agree.

AM B Suresh is from my neck of woods. Since young, he apparently had a reputation of being brilliant. When he was posted in Trivandrum until recently, he still held that reputation as a first-rate commander., to the point that last year, when I was helping out with hauling sacks of supplies from a C17(that thing is very soviet-spartan inside!) for flood relief, a senior afsar told me he considers him as easily "ACM material". Such respect is very very rare to hear from that particularly crusty old airdude friend of mine

So a bit of paunch might be ok for folks who dont have to jump out of a plane and fight. My best of luck to AM B Suresh's opposing commander/s

Picklu · Post by **Picklu** » 15 Nov 2019 21:52

Karan M wrote:The pilots name was Ceasar. He would spell it differently as I recall, Ceaser or some such thing. Not sure whether it was Tufail or someone else because he appeared far less jingoistic than Tufail. On the Indian side, a pilot under the handle of Balderdash was a participant, a Mirage 2000 veteran. The story was that two F-16s were locked on, and a young greenhorn panicked badly, and was roundly laughed at back on landing. On Jagans blog, an IAF veteran posted and noted it was he who had locked on two F-16s while Chibber was his wingman.

Picklu wrote:
Sorry for being late, work pressure as usual.

Kaisar Tufail used to participate in ACIG forum then and casually admitted the spanking paf received including the pant browning part. In multiple long posts, too.
The paki members were shocked; gave good amount of "traitor", "national secret", "h&d", "izlam khatrey me hai" etc etc.

Someone must have reported this to PAF HQ because after a few days he deleted all his posts and deleted his profile in the forum as well. His blog, came up much later, gives a very sanitized info.

ACIG got hacked and went offline after sometime. May be the oldies and folks like Tom Cooper would remember this. The best person to remember the same, B. Harry, is no more unfortunately, a loss that still causes pain

Again, sorry for coming back onto this but such memories of IAF spanking PAF need to be kept alive in the public (i am sure IAF insiders have a lot more but not public) else we give a free hand to "MM Alam superman" & "PAF won 1971 but PA lost the war" folks.

Jai Shri Ram!!!

A veritable round of applause for Aditya G to post the details including ACIG forum screenshot of one of Tufail's post on twitter

https://twitter.com/Aditya_G_Social/sta ... 80000?s=20

Aditya G · Post by **Aditya G** » 16 Nov 2019 04:05

thank you sir.

Eric Leiderman · Post by **Eric Leiderman** » 20 Nov 2019 00:16

http://www.indiandefencereview.com/news ... f-the-iaf/

nice summary of the way ahead for the IAF

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 20 Nov 2019 13:54

Weapons storage point to come up near Sulur air base - ToI

The Indian Air Force (IAF), which has an air base in Sulur, has decided to set up a ‘weapon storage point’ nearby and plans to construct a parallel taxi way at the base. The facility would help the IAF store strategic weapons, including missiles, in Sulur and it would be easy to move these during war across southern India.

The Ministry of Defence has approached the state government to acquire 700 acres of land near the Sulur air base for this. The district administration has sent details of the land to be acquired to the state government. It is awaiting administrative sanction, said a source. Once the state government grants administrative sanction, an officer will be appointed exclusively to acquire land. The Union government will bear the compensation to be given to land owners.

The source said the revenue department has to land from private people in at least five villages, including Kalangal, Kangeyampalayam and Appanaickenpatti.

The Ministry of Defence and the state government have been corresponding for the past few years. There is no major weapon storage point in the Southern Air Command that covers the entire Bay of Bengal up to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. If the facility is set up near the Sulur air base, moving weapons across the region will be easy.

The source said the Ministry of Defence had decided to speed up the project to face challenges looming in the horizon. With Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose support for China is known, in the saddle in Sri Lanka, it would be prudent for India to focus on the Southern Air Command, particularly the Bay of Bengal. It is only in the initial stage, revenue department officials told TOI. “If the Ministry of Defence asks us to speed up the land acquisition, the state government would do so,” said a source from the revenue department.

When contacted, Dhanya Sanal K, public relations officer of Defence Southern Command, said such details cannot be revealed by the department.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 20 Nov 2019 15:49

Eric Leiderman wrote:http://www.indiandefencereview.com/news ... f-the-iaf/

nice summary of the way ahead for the IAF

So many glaring errors in this article, sigh.

ashishvikas · Post by **ashishvikas** » 21 Nov 2019 11:58

IAF requires 'at least' 150 C295 medium transport aircraft: Airbus

https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2019/ ... irbus.html

Pan-European aerospace manufacturer Airbus is confident of closing a long-pending deal to supply India with its C295 multi-role transport aircraft.

In a report on FlightGlobal.com, Airbus officials were optimistic of progress in the deal to supply 56 C295 transport variant to the Indian Air Force. The Indian Coast Guard is also buying six maritime patrol variants of the C295.

The C295 is a multi-role transport aircraft that can carry a maximum payload of 9.25 tonnes. It has a range of 2,000 nautical miles when carrying 6 tonnes; it can carry up to 71 troops. According to Airbus, a total of 209 C295 aircraft have been ordered by 28 countries across the world. As its dimensions are smaller than the Indian Air Force's existing fleet of C-130J, C-17 and IL-76 transport aircraft, the C295 can take off and land at a wider variety of airfields.

The Defence Acquisition Council had cleared the Indian Air Force's plan to buy 56 C295 aircraft in 2015, with the Coast Guard order following later. The Indian Air Force selected the C295 as the replacement for its ageing fleet of Avro 748 transport aircraft. The Indian Air Force has a total fleet of over 50 Avro 748 aircraft. The first Avro aircraft for the Indian Air Force flew in 1961.

The C295 aircraft was pitched to India jointly by Airbus and Tata Advanced Systems Limited. The two companies plan to build the first 16 aircraft at an Airbus facility in Spain and the remainder would be built by Tata Advanced Systems Limited near Bengaluru. However, progress in the deal has been slow.

In March this year, the ministry of defence concluded price negotiations with Airbus and Tata Advanced Systems Limited; the estimated value of the contract for 62 aircraft is $3.15 billion.

Speaking to FlightGlobal.com, Dirk Hoke, CEO of Airbus Defence & Space, said he believed the Indian Air Force's requirement for the C295 could grow to “at least 150 [aircraft] and beyond".

Hoke also foresaw the possibility of exports of the C295 from India, calling it a "real Make-in-India" project. Alberto Gutierrez, another Airbus official, told FlightGlobal.com that all "administrative processes" for the C295 purchase are being fulfilled, adding "there is nothing to make us think that the contract isn’t going to happen".

While the C295 is being projected as the Indian Air Force's replacement for its Avro fleet, the aircraft is also considered a contender to replace the fleet of Antonov An-32 transport aircraft bought from the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The Indian Air Force currently operates around 100 An-32 aircraft. The upgrade programme for the An-32 has been stalled by the tension between Ukraine and Russia in recent decades.

Airbus touts the C295 as being capable of multiple roles including anti-submarine warfare, air-to-air refuelling and a platform for airborne early warning radar. Airbus also has a 'gunship' variant of the C295, armed with guns and air-to-ground missiles for the purpose of providing air support to ground troops.

During the Aero India airshow in February, DRDO unveiled plans for a maritime patrol variant of the C-295 and an airborne early warning variant for the Indian Air Force, which would use the same radar as used by the indigenous 'Netra' system.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 21 Nov 2019 12:37

This programme has huge potential and should be wrapped up asap.The variants too should be immediately worked upon, the AEW Netra version and the MRP bird.
The aircraft would also be a good civilian regional option and in my estimation over 200 aircraft for both civilian and military requirements is possible.Assuming a decade of production, this would require an annual rate of around 18 aircraft raised to 24 should demand surge.

nam · Post by **nam** » 25 Nov 2019 03:36

Was this posted? Some super TFTA shots...C17, Su30 etc..

nam · Post by **nam** » 25 Nov 2019 03:42

There is no major weapon storage point in the Southern Air Command that covers the entire Bay of Bengal up to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Southern Command has no weapons storage in South? Despite having probably most important economic & military ecosystem of the country!

hnair · Post by **hnair** » 25 Nov 2019 10:09

SSridhar wrote:Weapons storage point to come up near Sulur air base - ToI
The Indian Air Force (IAF), which has an air base in Sulur, has decided to set up a ‘weapon storage point’ nearby and plans to construct a parallel taxi way at the base. The facility would help the IAF store strategic weapons, including missiles, in Sulur and it would be easy to move these during war across southern India.

Dont know what the parallel taxiway means? It already is showing a newly topped up parallel taxi-way in Google maps

Sulur seem to be ramping very very fast and the new facilities look TFTA, including those giant assembly sheds that seem to be readying for AMCA saga. In general, the IAF bases and facilities are getting upgraded really well, after a long time