IAF chief ACM's first press conference (must see important updates)

[Galaxy]

IAF chief ACM's first press conference


IAF chief: Final operational clearance for LCA Tejas delayed by one full year.

IAF chief: We plan to induct the FGFA/PAK-FA as 166 single-seaters and 48 twin-seaters.

IAF chief: Contract for 75 Pilatus PC-7 basic trainers by end of this month. Contract awaiting final approval from Finance Ministry.

IAF chief: As with existing attack helo sqns, the 22 new helos we get will also function under command/contrl of army. We Fly/maintain.

IAF chief: Want to make Kargil airfield full ops for C-130J, C-17s and Il-76s.

IAF chief: We are extending the Kargil runway to operate all aircraft types, including all fighters and strat lift aircraft.

IAF chief: Will maintain 34 fighter squadrons no matter what. No. 17 sqn to be phased out, will have Su-30s. deliveries by 2014.

IAF chief: First four new Mi-17-V5s arrived last week. More soon. By March we will have 25 units. Will be based at Suratgarh.

IAF chief: We have ordered 6 more C-130Js. The new six will be based in the eastern theatre. IAF receiving benefit of Rs 400 crore less on followon 6.

IAF chief: We are extending the Kargil runway to operate all aircraft types, including all fighters and strat lift aircraft.

IAF Day on Oct 8 to see flypast with C-130J, Jaguars, MiG-21 Bison, MiG-29, Mirage-2000, Su-30MKI.IAF chief: MMRCA bids to be opened in third week of October. Final meeting by acquisition council on Oct 7 to sort out any issues. We have the funds for the MMRCA programme. There will be a realignment in committed liabilities.

IAF Chief: Mirage 2000 weapons contract for MICA missiles to be signed this month or the next.

 

[Ray]

Let's recall that unfortunate incident in slight detail. As is the wont in this country, any important event has to be hijacked by the powers-that-be. And so this pioneering flight to Kargil had to have the then AOC-in-C, Western Air Command, Air Marshal VK Bhatia, on it. But the Air Marshal was not satisfied by being just the passenger on board. Or for that matter being just a co-pilot. He took over as the Captain of the aircraft and Wg Cdr Chafekar became the co-pilot. Flt Lt V Awasthy was the navigator. On approach to the runway, which was a bit tricky and since the Air Marshal was not familiar flying in this area, the aircraft strayed over to the other side of the LoC and was fired upon by a Pakistan Army unit with a missile which hit one engine.
Reveille: Surviving a missile and an Air Marshal

The airfield requires a circuit that is real tricky since one has to circuit that skirts or even peeks over POK, give a few pluses and minuses.

Good old Bhatia bears witness!

 

[K Factor]

The airfield requires a circuit that is real tricky since one has to circuit that skirts or even peeks over POK, give a few pluses and minuses.

Good old Bhatia bears witness!

Lt Gen Arjun Ray - mentioned in the article...... it that you, sir?

 

[agentperry]

214 pak fa with 166 single seater and 48 twin seater version.

this is completely incoherent with the earlier press releases. instead of 250-300 jets the original number stands at 214.
earlier they said that first 50-60 pak fa will be single seater russian made and the rest 200-250 will be twin seater, instead now less than 50 twin seater/ hal modified pak fa with 166 russian sukhois.

massive change in plan in one go.

 

[Dovah]

IAF chief: We plan to induct the FGFA/PAK-FA as 166 single-seaters and 48 twin-seaters.

The single seaters were PAK Fa and the Twin seaters were FGFA, right?

 

[agentperry]

The single seaters were PAK Fa and the Twin seaters were FGFA, right?

what ever it may be but see the inversion of numbers.

 

[Dovah]

what ever it may be but see the inversion of numbers.

This is what confused me, whatever happened to "another-dimension" talks. Could this be because of dwindling pilot numbers?

 

[agentperry]

This is what confused me, whatever happened to "another-dimension" talks. Could this be because of dwindling pilot numbers?

pilot number wont make such a great distortion. even now there are 600 pilots forced to do ground duties as there is an acute shortage of fighters and other planes. moreover if the squadron no is to rise and go beyond even the sanctioned limit then i think pilot no is the last thing they will think of. in anyway they are going to increase there pilot strength

 

[trackwhack]

I for one am absolutely thrilled with the inversion.

The single seater PAKFA should simply be an Air Dominance Fighter. For all strategic missions we have the Sukhoi 30 fleet which will serve us another 40 years through till 2050.
The PAK FA's should primarily be loaded with BVRAAM's and at least 48 of them must be under joint command and control of the Navy to protect four Aircraft Carrier Battlegroups until we build a 5th Gen aircraft that will replace the 29K's which should happen by 2030. Until 2030 we do not need a Navy that projects power byound the APAC region. But post 2030 we will. So the PAKFA with adequate refuelling capabilities will make our ACB's untouchable.

 

[arya]

well dont you guys think future is for drones

we need 5+ gen planes without pilots , its better if we start to think now ,


we have to look from space in my personal view we have to go for advance drone and space fighter

 

[ace009]

I am not sure what you mean by defending the ACB - most of the PAK-FA/ FGFA will be required to fight against the PLAAF with their J-20s and J-11s.
Defending the ACBs should be left to the fighters carried by them - be it Mig-29Ks, N-LCA or N-MMRCA. You cannot expect to have the land-based PAK-FA to provide support to the ACBs when they are out in the Arabian sea, the Persian gulf, the Indian Ocean or the South China Sea,

Anyway - if the ACBs require "protection" from land-based aircraft, then the whole point of ACBs go away ...

 

[Dovah]

well dont you guys think future is for drones

we need 5+ gen planes without pilots , its better if we start to think now ,


we have to look from space in my personal view we have to go for advance drone and space fighter

Sarcasm?
Hopefully.

 

[SpArK]

Lt Gen Arjun Ray - mentioned in the article...... it that you, sir?

Arjun Ray - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[tarunraju]

It's interesting that he used the term Eastern "theatre", as if there's an ongoing secret conflict with skirmishes that never get reported in the press.

 

[ace009]

well dont you guys think future is for drones

we need 5+ gen planes without pilots , its better if we start to think now ,


we have to look from space in my personal view we have to go for advance drone and space fighter

6th generation fighters (remotely controlled combat aircraft) are great - they can fly really fast and do high-G maneuvers - much higher than a piloted plane - close to that of a current gen A2A missile. But, a pilot in the seat of a combat airplane is still advantageous when the air superiority is not there to begin with and the AWACS can only deliver partial information about enemy formations/ aircraft.
When there is uncertainty in the air, a pilot can do much better sitting in the aircraft than in a remote location thousands./ hundreds of miles away.

 

[sayareakd]

Russians and US are going in for single seat fighter, that is why we too are going in that direction, because of AWACs, satellites and other modern force multipliers, no need to have two pilots on fighter.

 

[trackwhack]

I am not sure what you mean by defending the ACB - most of the PAK-FA/ FGFA will be required to fight against the PLAAF with their J-20s and J-11s.
Defending the ACBs should be left to the fighters carried by them - be it Mig-29Ks, N-LCA or N-MMRCA. You cannot expect to have the land-based PAK-FA to provide support to the ACBs when they are out in the Arabian sea, the Persian gulf, the Indian Ocean or the South China Sea,

Anyway - if the ACBs require "protection" from land-based aircraft, then the whole point of ACBs go away ...

I marked out 48 out of the 160 as support for ACB's, not all of them. I seriously doubt the 29K's effectiveness as a defensive platform with its limited beyong visual range capabilities. If there are 2 squadrons of enemy aircraft approaching an ACB, a half dozen PAKFA's will take them out before they can come anywhere close to causing any damage. Anyway these planes need to serve this role only until we have a good 5th gen naval aircraft which I hope will be inducted by 2030.

For Air Dominance against the Chinese : 126 MMRCA + 110 PAKFA itself is overkill. Add to that the MKI squadrons designated for Air superiority.

Anyway, why do we need more that 60 twin seater FGFA's. The twin seaters are required for Strategic missions and the single seaters for Air dominance. I am of the opinion that we need more Air dominance fighters.

 

[Tshering22]

Why can't he just force the ministry to grant IAF command of HAL? Currently it is in the hands of idiots who have zero management capability and are wasting the scientific potential of so many valuable scientists and engineers.

 

[SpArK]

IAF chief we need atleast a squadron of electronic warfare aircrafts to get unmatched advantage..

 

[agentperry]

IAF chief we need atleast a squadron of electronic warfare aircrafts to get unmatched advantage..

early tejas are getting revamped for same role