this idea popped up in my head a couple of minutes ago while i was browsing through the Dassault Mirage III related sites, the PAF ROSE upgrades and i felt that i should just share it.
i should warn you that it's unconventional and might sound totally outlandish .
the IAF fighter inventory can be basically divided into three parts- low, mid and high.
towards the lower end of the spectrum we have ~250 MiG-21 of which 100 will be retired by the year end
reducing our squadron strength from the existing 37 to 32 whereas we need optimally 42 to fight a two front war on both the borders. the rest 150 which have been upgraded to Bison standard will continue to serve till 2025.
Tejas though looks promising has caused a lot of unpleasantness between the IAF and HAL/DRDO. My best guess is that it will still take another 7 years at best for it to mature into a capable platform ie. till 2022. In the meantime we have nothing to plug the gap. And the less said about
PAK FA/FGFA the better. i simply don't see the fighter fulfilling its true potential before 2025.
now the MRCA deal was intended to provide us with an interim replacement for the MiG-21 and the MiG-27 (whose retirement shall commence from 2017 onwards leaving us without any CAS capability but I have taken that up in another post-
http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/posts/1064901/) and at the same time augmenting the mid segment comprising the MiG-29 and Mirage 2000 (both shall remain in service beyond 2025).
but as we have seen due to the usual dilly dallying by the Indian establishment and the French turning greedy (pls refer my earlier post
http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/posts/1064832/) we ended up buying only 36 which is clearly insufficient. even these jets will take 2-3 years (best guess not before 2017) to be delivered and become fully operational.
hypothetically had we concluded the MRCA deal successfully, and after the initial 18 jets were bought off-the-shelf it would have taken us at least 3 years to setup the production line and related infrastructure and another 2 years for the first aircraft to roll out i.e. no new Rafale till 2020 best case scenario.
so technically till 2020 we have no replacements and we are down to 32 squadrons which will get much worse when the MiG-27s start retiring. so it's a two pronged problem in the sense that-
1) existing aircrafts (Eurofighter/ Rafale/Gripen) are just too expensive for a one-on-one replacement of the MiG-21 and MiG-27 and it's too late to buy and build a new fighter from scratch.
2) projects under development such as the Tejas and PAK FA still have a long way to go (min 10 yrs) before fully satisfying the IAF requirements
What we need is a stop gap measure that is inexpensive and readily available within 1-2 years.
An obvious solution would be to produce more Su-30s but that would make the air force too homogenous and frankly would be something of an overkill.
My radical proposal is to buy second hand fighters. yes you heard it correct. second hand jets upgraded to the latest standards that would cost a fraction of today's new build jets and can be delivered within no time provided the aircraft is in decent condition.
An obvious candidate and my favorite is the
MiG-29 Fulcrum. The MiG-21 was finally replaced in the Soviet Air Force by the MiG-29, not the MiG-23. Around 1600+ Fulcrums have been produced to date and the majority remain in service. Surprisingly a huge number of airframes approximately around 1/3rd of the total produced or ~500 are in storage with various air forces around the world. Ukraine has around 100 in storage while Russia has close to 200 maybe more as no one knows the actual strength of the RuAF. Of course most of these aircrafts might have been cannibalized for parts and spares and might be in poor condition. but what matters most is the air worthiness of the airframe which can be rectified quickly with an overhaul. Russian aircrafts like the iconic AK-47 assault rifle are built like a hammer to operate under the most adverse conditions and as such their airframes are built keeping 40+ years of service in mind which can be achieved through complete overhauls at regular intervals.
IAF has been operating the MiG-29 for the past 25 years and the
readiness rate of it's MiG-29 fleet is ~ 77-79% which is comparable to USAF and NATO forces. Su-30MKI has a dismal readiness rate of 53%.
This is possible as India already possesses extensive
Repair and Overhaul facilities (RoH) for the MiG-29 unlike the Su-30MKI. Also
we already have the licence for producing the latest series 3 Klimov engines for the Fulcrums. In case of the Sukhois everytime there's an engine problem it has to be sent back to Russia as there are no RoH facilities for the aircraft in India thereby reducing its availability rate. Also since MiG-29s would be replacing MiG-21s this would in no way further increase the Russian content of the air force.
Cons:
1) it all depends upon the actual condition of the aircrafts in storage with Russian, Ukrainian and other East European countries. for all i know their condition might be beyond any feasible repair.
2) 15-20 years of service at best
3) Cost and time overruns as with the Admiral Gorshkov carrier. but aircrafts should be comparatively easier to sort out.
My suggestion in no way undermines or encourages the discontinuation of the Tejas or the PAK FA/FGFA program. It is just a stop-gap measure till 2025-2030 time frame when both these projects come fully online.
So guys let's hear your views on this one!