Posted on 10/19/2010 12:54:45 AM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Given the global buzz around the Indian Air Force’s (IAF’s) ongoing $10-billion procurement of 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), my suggestion to scrap the process and, instead, go in for a straight buy of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightening II fighters is admittedly radical. But consider this: when the F-35 enters service, a couple of years from now, it will comfortably outclass every one of the six fighters that the IAF is currently evaluating. Thereafter, through the entire 30-40 year service life of the selected MMRCA, the IAF will fly a second-rung fighter when it could have gotten the best.
The six fighters that the IAF has flight-tested over the last year — Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet; Lockheed Martin’s F-16IN Super Viper; Dassault’s Rafale; the Russian MiG-35; the Swedish Saab Gripen NG; and the Eurofighter — are categorised, even by their manufacturers, as Fourth Generation fighters. In contrast, the F-35 is globally acknowledged as a Fifth Generation fighter. The key to its superiority is stealth, making it effectively invisible to radar at longer ranges. This is a battle-winning advantage in aerial combat, where radars are the only way of “seeing” the enemy; the F-35 will detect enemy fighters and launch missiles at them, well before being detected. While attacking ground targets in enemy territory, the F-35 will remain undetected until it is too late to react. Unsurprisingly, each Fifth Generation fighter is the battlefield equivalent of three-four previous generation aircraft.
(Excerpt) Read more at business-standard.com ...
Yeah. Buy from Obama. That’s the ticket.
Unspeakable moron.
To heck with that. Buy from Lockheed Martin!
Who will have to wait, and how long?
Hmmm... 45+ million dollars sent out of country per aircraft or 45+ million dollars per aircraft spent in country to develop next gen vehicles and the related technologies and support jobs.
Right now and likely for the near future the United States is not a reliable ally to be investing your defense dollars with. A mohammedan imamabee in the big chair and your closest threat a mohammedan country on your border, it doesn’t bode well for contracts being honored should tensions rise...
Build your own, it’s wiser in the long run.
Even after Hindustan Industries start cranking out MMRCAs from whoever wins the contract, there are going to be certain components that will have to be imported.
This is even true of the F414 that India just selected for the Tejas fighter. They will assemble F414s in India, but turbine blades will be imported. Cut off those imports, and you’ve effectively cut off F414 production.
With Russian aircraft such as the Su-30MKI, India has to return the entire engine to Russia for repairs, so they’re also vulnerable to a Russian boycot.
That’s why I said for them to build their own.
In today’s world it’s madness for any country who can afford it to not have a domestic Manhattan Project for advanced weapons systems instead of relying on others who won’t have your best interests at heart.
India doesn’t (yet) have the metallurgy skills required for a modern high efficiency jet aircraft engine, which is why they went shopping for one off-the-shelf, and why they cannot repair their own Su-30MKI engines.
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