Posted on 07/30/2020 6:15:54 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Indian media has been filled with glowing expert reviews of the Rafale jets compared to what China could bring to bear in any aerial conflict, including China's new J-20 stealth fighters. The Rafale is not a stealth jet, but it is touted for for having a low profile that is not easy to detect on radar.
Flown by French forces, the Rafale has been used in operations in Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Iraq and Syria...
India officially accepted delivery of the first batch of jets at the French plant where they are manufactured last October.
Indian pilots trained on the aircraft and flew them on the 8,500-kilometer (5,280-mile) trip from France to India. The trip included a stop at Al Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates, with a French Air Force tanker aircraft providing inflight refueling...
Along with the Su-30s, other fighters in the Indian fleet include the Mirage 2000, the LCA Tejas, the MiG-27, the MiG-29 and the Jaguar.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Sounds like they have some decent, if not state of the art, fighters.
They need to get rid of Jaguars, Mirage and Mig27 and buy a few more Rafales instead
I thought they were heavy with F16s...?
the pakis have a contingent of f-16s. you can see PAF and IAF TO&E on wiki - they each have a mishmash of equipment. The Pakistanis have American, Chinese, French stuff and the Indians have British, Russian, and French equipment.
We were effectively rooting for Indian MIG-21s and SU-27s to shoot down Pakistani F-16s in their last skirmish.
How do they maintain all that different equipment?
Brand specific call centers?
“Ello. Pleasing to press 1 for Mig 27, 2 for Mirage, 3 for F 16. If you are being flying and this is being an emergency hang up and pulling the Eject handle”
A plane filled with Indian software could only fly one route and would have to be reprogrammed from scratch for every sortie.
I will never be able to unthink that.
They don’t need aircraft that can go toe-to-toe with American fighters - their enemy is China and the USA is a friend (perhaps not yet an ally)
The MiG-27s are almost gone. The Jag is an excellent and reliable platform and is being upgraded for the last time with new electronics and radars and missiles. The Mirages too are being upgraded with new electronics but the French want to sell more Rafales and are thus asking too much to make it compatible with the Meteor AAM etc. Still very much in the fight in the Ground attack role with the new systems.
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