The completed trials of Garuda, Garuthma, Astra, Helina - these 4 itself will put the IAF in a hugely advantageous position. Imagine AF getting access to 1000 unit production runs of affordable PGMs and constant iterative improvements.
And for Su-30,
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 919425.cms
We still import some 30% spares by LRU count from Russia as I recall.
So IAF projects to HAL. HAL gets the spares from local & Russian vendors and puts ample numbers, financed by MOD.
Indian pvt vendors are unhappy working with Russian firms.
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/ ... y-2960457/
“We have worked with Rosoboronexport which operates like a middleman. We paid the money to Rosoboronexport but the small Russian company never got the money from Rosoboronexport, and never sent us the parts. We are not alone, everyone has had complaints with Rosoboronexport which even the defence ministry is fully aware of,” Vice-President of a top Indian defence company told The Indian Express.
So HAL will do the heavy lifting of stockpiling.
http://www.business-standard.com/articl ... 006_1.html
When Su-30 serviceability was 54%, but HAL was trying to make it 68%.
(a) 20 per cent of the fleet, i.e. some 39 Su-30MKIs, are undergoing "first line" and "second line" maintenance or inspections at any time, which is the IAF's responsibility; (b) Another 11-12 per cent of the fleet is undergoing major repair and overhaul by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL); and (c) 13-14 per cent of the fleet is grounded, awaiting major systems or repairs - the technical terms is: "aircraft on ground".
HAL noted
MoD was informed about serious problems with IAF's management of spares. By standard norms, a fighter fleet consumes five per cent of its worth in consumables and spares each year. By that benchmark the Su-30MKI fleet, currently worth about Rs 69,000 crore - 193 Su-30MKIs at Rs 358 crore a fighter - should consume spares worth Rs 3,450 crore annually. Yet, IAF orders from HAL add up to less than Rs 50 crore, including ground handling equipment.
This is actually the bloody UPA scam, they didn't fund the AF enough to order more spares.
But what we need to understand is how much does the spares -Rs correlation translate to.
To ensure that 13-14 per cent of the Su-30MKI fleet is not grounded for want of spares, HAL has stockpiled spares worth Rs 400 crore in Nashik. According to S Subrahmanyan, the chief of HAL's Nashik facility, the inventory is based on a study of consumption patterns of Su-30MKI spares over the preceding five years.
HAL says this buffer stock includes spares that are still purchased from Russia, because low consumption volumes make indigenisation non-cost-effective. Even so, non-availability of these spares could ground aircraft. Simultaneously, HAL has proposed to MoD that IAF must order spares required over a five-year period, stocking them at 25 Equipment Depot, IAF's holding depot for spares at Nashik.
Now HAL is being asked by MOD to stockpile some 2000 Crores worth of spares. That's 4x the above.
Now while we can say this includes 13-14% AOG which will still take time to fix, the remaining quantum of spares can be used for the first group (20% which are undergoing first and second line maintenance with IAF) and which can be fixed relatively quickly.
This is matched by what HAL says
HAL is confident that it can deliver higher serviceability rates for the Su-30MKI than the current 58 per cent. The company has argued that raising aircraft availability by 20 per cent would make 40 Su-30MKI additionally available to the IAF, effectively adding two fighter squadrons to its strike power.
Now add up the above - 54% +20% - very near the 75% Parrikar says is his aim for the Su-30 fleet. The remaining 25% - we will need spares but repairs will be taking time & won't be available in short term.
Hence, if above HAL agreement is pushed hard, we do have a possibility of rapidly improving Su-30 availability.
Now- technical issues;
1. RWR blanking. Issues are again not clear (for obvious reasons IAF won;t broadcast, while CAG claims local project was cancelled, DRDO yearbook mentions work on a new digital 6 channel RWR continues. Worse comes to worst, we can revert to Russian design, even if less fancy)
2. SPJs: We have an option. Heavy, but capable, Russian SAP-518s designed to work with Su-30.
3. Mission computer issue, resolved.
4. Engine issue - work in progress. Russians are working w/us to fix it. 34 failures in past few years but both sides claim they have an idea of what went wrong.
5. AAM issue: R-77s are unreliable. Well Astra has cleared most trials & is around the corner. Finally.
6. FBW issue: Again, while still something both sides have differing views on, one crash at least was caused by ergonomics (fixed) & relatively, the AF seems ok with the airframe.
All in all - the Su-30 has been a huge challenge but its fixable & Parrikar is working to a plan, methodically.
Add Garuthma, Garuda, NGARM to Su-30 and Jai Hind!
