Oh I thought for the most part they angle it to the side or downwards not upwards.
Indian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
Lethe
Captain
Here's something I prepared earlier. Notably, total displacement of IN's surface combatants first exceeded those of the Royal Navy in 2012 and the gap has continued to grow since. 2022's figure of 155k tons puts IN roughly where PLAN was in 1999. By 2030 IN should be up around 190k tons, or roughly where PLAN was in 2004.
Lethe
Captain
How are they going to meet the technology transfer criteria after cutting units by half? They are going to get tenders for half the airframes at 75% of the cost.
At this point they should just order another 35-50 Rafales off the shelf and be done with it.
They should do that and acquire Rafale for naval fighter. Lessens maintenance complications. If I were in charge of IAF I'd retire the Jaguars and Bisons asap.
third most powerful airforce after US and Russia... in da world! ... dunno what world though.
Honestly at this point that ranking has lost a great deal of worthwhile reputation to satisfy the feel good of Indians. Indian airforce being even top 5 overall in the world is quite a reach on its best of forms and days.
1. US
2. China
3. UK
4. France
5. Russia
6. Japan
7. South Korea
8. Germany (after F-35s)
9. Turkey (if it gets F-35s)
10. India (mostly because of Rafale boost to combat capabilities and honestly not much else)
11. Norway? Sweden/Italy/Spain/Canada
MKIs are extremely outdated these days but still relevant fighters as all 4th gen fighters in service ought to be considered as. Mig-29s are even lesser. Mirage 2000s honestly I'd rate about as highly as MKIs at this point and certainly above middle of the road Mig-29s. Lower numbers, low training and flight hours, pathetically poor network centric systems and supporting assets, read near zero. Every piece of foreign technology throughout the eras trying to work together seamlessly and communicate and cooperate... nope.
Rafales add a lot more capability because what they had in the past was just numbers that can go in the air. Greater numbers than 3 to 9 but far inferior in everthing from training to equipment capability modernity and technology. Not to mention service logistics and operational capability are doubtful/skeptical.
No western defence company is really going to transfer their industrial secrets to manufacture a modern fighter jet to a third world country, even for billions.
Key technologies will always be kept secret. Local assembly may bring costs down, but in India's case it seems to increase the price.
UK and France ahead of Russia. Keep on dreaming. So where are the UK and France's strategic bombers? In the case of France where are their stealth aircraft? And both are hopelessly outnumbered in terms of aircraft by Russia. Russia could take both their air forces head on and still win. Sorry this is no contest. Russia has around a hundred Su-35, another hundred Su-30, close to a hundred and a half Su-34, and to top it all off around a hundred modernized MiG-31s. That is over 400 4+ generation aircraft. And then you have the modernized Su-27s.
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Problem is the Rafale line is fully booked for the next few years. Nice problem to have for Dassault, not so much for IAF. Would be foolish of them to introduce relatively small numbers of yet another type, though. As for the ranking, agree it is ridiculous to put India so high. I'd put Russia higher solely due to its possession of long range bombers.