Guys let me know your view about the topic " does Indian airforce need heavy bomber squadrens " Rival china is having heavy bomber aircrafts,which can neutralize our military assets within seconds,though we have AEW Systems mounted on embracer plane ,IL 78 to prevent any kind of threat but was it enough? In case of war enemy will certainly destroy military assets using heavy munition . Team are we capable of firing heavy munition? Do we have such bombs in our inventory?
Have a look at Indian MIG 27 fleet. We are using this plane for massive ground attack role,wat if India retire these aircraft in near future ?quite obvious tejas can not perform such thing neither Rafael. Correct me if iam wrong ?
We FIRST need to have our sqdns complete and get to 45. Also we need more Missiles and ABM systems. In todays warfare we don't need such large # of bombers which can be taken down my enemy missiles.
There is no solid source that confirms that we have the Tupolev-22M. If you have any source, please share. Relevant thread: http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/threads/does-india-have-tu-22m3-bombers.31509/
AURA will be ready by 2019- 2021. Till the time at least we need to have one squadren of heavy bomber.
We are lacking in our metallurgical department. We need to gain expertise in Titanium, Lithium, and other metals based light alloys.
Why the hell is this thread in Pakistan country watch? Why do you always give relevance to our defense forces only leaning towards Pakistan? Isn't there a whole world out there other than the pakis? STOP stooping to paki levels please and rise to being an international influence.
Heavy bombers as in the B-52s ? They're interceptor/SAM fodder They only work when you are flying over uncontested airspace which is hard to come by these days. Maybe Stealth Bombers but no one is selling those and ours isn't ready yet
Agree with @pmaitra, we need swing-wing bombers like the White Swan (Tupolev 160). Why don't we buy some off Russia? They have started production of the Blackjacks again. Of course, the IAF with its corrupt officials would like to have some old decrepit and lightweight B1. Furthermore, only buying would not do. We also would have to have nukes in the air at all times to deter China. Strategic bombers are the need of the hour.
B52 SAM fodder? I don't think many countries have SAM which would reach such high altitudes. These strategic bombers fly at very high altitudes, and very fast. So interception with jets is also challenging.
During cold war nato worked on assault breaker program to counter overwhelming Warsaw pact tank numbers. Today, it's missile breaker, heavy bombers today are probably less useful than massed cheap ballistic missiles. Better to have some, but GPS has changed game. Missile defence and offence is today's war. USA did to Gaddafi defense with 100 cruise missile what probably 100 bombers could not. Better to get nirbhay in gear, with increased range and speed. Especially when much of our fighting is in mountains, where bombers can't land and Sam easily concealed.
Tu-160 is a strategic bomber, it is beyond India's league. The talk of Tu-22M3 has been for long time. Many deny its existence. If it is present, then it would be our trump card, and hence the need to maintain the secrecy over it. SAM's can target aircraft's at very high altitudes too. It was achieved way back in cold war times when Soviets shot down U-2 spy plane. In cases of conflict, Americans dispatch their stealth bombers like B-2 and F-117's, which are the first one's to penetrate the enemy skies-undetected. Their mission is to bomb strategic locations, SAM sites,Runways, Airbases etc. When enemy air defenses have been neutralized, they call in the B-52's which do the renaming work of bombing other locations. B-52's carry heavier loads and the cost of operating them is quite cheaper compared to B-2's. In any-case, be it swept wing or flying wing or fixed wing , we need to concentrate more on stealth and counter-stealth capabilities. For a start, we have to take lessons from what Russia is doing with its new stealth bomber.
