A model of the F-16 Block 70 with the retractable probe mounted on the right Conformal Fuel Tank | Photo: Saurabh Joshi/StratPost
Graphic: Lockheed Martin
Posted on 10/19/2018 8:47:33 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
With India signing a pact with Russia to purchase the S-400 missile defence system, Washington has informally conveyed to Delhi that it could avoid sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) if India were to give an assurance that it would buy the F-16 fighter aircraft from the United States. Not keen on buying an aircraft already in service with Pakistan, India has refused to give any such assurance till date. The fallout of the Trump administration’s reaction to the S-400 deal featured in the wide-ranging discussion between Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and US counterpart James Mattis in Singapore on Friday, but sources told The Indian Express that the offer of a CAATSA waiver in exchange for buying F-16 fighter jets was made earlier this month. Sitharaman and Mattis met on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus).
Sitharaman is also scheduled to make her first bilateral visit to the US as Defence Minister in mid-December but it is not clear if Mattis would still be a part of the Trump administration then. Mattis has been a vocal supporter of a CAATSA waiver for India, forcefully arguing for a waiver before the US Congress. But the three-step waiver process is to be decided by President Trump, who said last week that India “is going to find out” the answer “sooner than you think”. US State Department officials have said that “There are no blanket waivers that will be issued for any one country”, and any waiver under CAATSA “would require, among other things, countries to significantly reduce their reliance on Russian arms”. Sanctions under CAATSA would be triggered once Delhi makes a payment for the Russian equipment. India likely to make a part payment of the $4.5-billion deal with Russia this financial year.
US officials told The Indian Express that there is “support on both sides of the aisle” for “strong action against Russia”, and President Trump will need a good deal with India for granting a CAATSA waiver. Although US has offered both F-16 and F-18 fighter aircraft to India, it will be easier in Washington to make a case for moving the F-16 production line to India.
Although US officials argue that the F-16 being offered to India is F-16 Block 70, far superior to Block 50/52 in Pakistan’s inventory, Delhi is not keen on buying a fighter aircraft which has been with Pakistan Air Force for nearly three decades. Besides ‘political’ reasons, Delhi also argues that F-16 would not be compatible with its indigenous Brahmos missiles.
The Indian Air Force has issued an RFI (request for information) for buying 114 fighter aircraft (single/double engine) under a competitive bidding process, which could feature F-16 and F-18. But that open competition will not include any assurance to Washington from Delhi about buying an American aircraft.
A specifically enacted legislation, CAATSA’s “ultimate goal”, in the words of a senior State Department official, “is to prevent revenue from flowing to the Russian Government.” It was enacted to punish Russia by sanctioning persons engaging in business transactions with the Russian defence sector. CAATSA provides President Trump two mechanisms to issue a waiver for India — Section 236(b) of CAATSA (“Waiver of Sanctions that are Imposed”) or Section 231(d) (“Modified Waiver Authority for Certain Sanctionable Transactions under Section 231 of CAATSA”).
It requires the President to certify that India: (i) is taking or will take steps to reduce its inventory of major defence equipment and advanced conventional weapons produced by the defence sector of the Russian Federation as a share of its total inventory of major defence equipment and advanced conventional weapons over a specified period; or (ii) is cooperating with the United States Government on other security matters that are critical to United States strategic interests.
A model of the F-16 Block 70 with the retractable probe mounted on the right Conformal Fuel Tank | Photo: Saurabh Joshi/StratPost
Graphic: Lockheed Martin
Would like to see an article on why the S-400 is so desirable.
Something cheap usually has significant drawbacks.
India is not our ally. They’re dumping their workers on us, they don’t take deportees back, they stieal our intellectual property, and here, they buy weapons from Russia instead of us, further undermining us. We should treat them as an adversary. Deport Indians, cut off any aid, etc.
The S-400 is actually more expensive than many Western offerings.
As for why it’s popular, it’s not just a single system on a truck or a couple of trucks, it’s a networkable array of missiles and radars and it can talk to other S-400s to form a Virtual Very Large Radar Array. VLRAs are capable of detecting but not necessarily locating (at least not necessarily well enough to send missiles at with any accuracy - at current - but well enough to vector fighters and slew air defense systems to start looking in the right direction) many stealth vehicles and weapons. The system also includes very short range, short range, medium range, long range and very long range missiles all in the same deployment package. It can also do ballistic missile defense.
It’s a very versatile package and there’s nothing similar on the unrestricted or only mildly restricted world market from the West.
I wonder how difficult it would be to overcome the compatibility issue, leaving 'politics' as the only objection?
You can also bet the Indians are watching the US reaction to the Koshoggi killing with great interest.
I suspect with Russia selling it around the world that we have a copy to check into.
Brahmos is based on a Russian anti shipping hypersonic cruise missile and was developed in concert with the Russians. It uses NATO bomb lugs for physical carriage but the F-16 electrical system and munitions computer has no idea what to do with it so it cannot program the missile or actually launch it. It can jettison it from the pylon, but that’s about it. The converse is also true - Russian aircraft cannot fire Western smart/programmable munitions either, not without major all-or-nothing weapons avionics retrofits, if at all. The computer protocols and even the connector voltages aren’t compatible.
At the very least it sounds like the F-16 munitions computer would need additional programming to handle the Indian Brahmos missile...that doesn’t sound like an insurmountable technical issue, does it?
That’s assuming the voltage is compatible, which I believe is not the case. Reprogramming the computer won’t do any good if the electronics are physically incompatible.
That said, I think it would be a bad idea for India to buy F-16s because their traditional enemy flies them - purely from the standpoint of visual aircraft recognition. If India flies the F-16, Pakistan could paint up some of theirs as Indian craft and conceivably do some damage. Even if not, in a close range dogfight it could lead to confusion at best. India would be better off getting the F-18 instead.
Thanks, very helpful.
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2017/06/15/malaysia-adapts-russian-built-jets-to-drop-us-made-bombs/
Not sure how much tweaking is required/or was done in this particular case.
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