Why are India's air force planes falling out of the sky?

rajkumar singh

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Are India's ageing air force planes falling out of the sky?

'Flying coffin'

The Russian-made aircraft The MiG jet in particular has become known as the "flying coffin" or the "widow maker".

Two years ago, India's then defence minister told an astonished parliament that more than half the 872 MiGs it had purchased from Russia had been-lost in accidents, at a cost of over 200 lives.

Apparently, pilots regularly complain that some MiG models land too fast and that the design of the window canopy means they can't see the runway properly.

The Russians have also been accused of being tardy with supplies of spare parts. India - now the world's largest arms importer - is increasingly turning to the West for its weapons. The US is now its number one supplier.

It fears, Western nations will hold up critical spare parts and support "as a means of political leverage on India", something he believes the Russians are less prone to do.

The new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, partly won office on the back of hopes he will put India on course to becoming a superpower and has promised to modernise the military.

But it's an old challenge, says retired navy officer Uday Bhaskar. "Finding the solution is something that's eluded every Indian leader until now."
 

Blackwater

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Becoze Sky is the limit, IAF don't go beyond limit .lollll hor kinaa ucha urna ha
 

sgarg

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Accidents happen in every air force. These are high performance planes flown to the limit of their design. The rate of accident in IAF has come down to a more reasonable level.

IAF needs to focus more on maintenance issues if the accident rate has to fall further.
 

roma

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Accidents happen in every air force. These are high performance planes flown to the limit of their design. The rate of accident in IAF has come down to a more reasonable level.

IAF needs to focus more on maintenance issues if the accident rate has to fall further.
a nation that wants to take its place in the modern world

does not have manufacturing capability up to par ( yet )

and fields 40 plus year old structural frame as the backbone of its air force ?

even robert vadra got it right when he asked - are you serious ?

our boffins in the airforce and min of defence still cant figure out that we need to have tejas ( a commendable effort )
replace our ageing mig21's - and fast , please !
 
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sgarg

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@roma, the aircrafts in service today are from 80s or later. Older aircrafts have been retired.

I agree that procurement policies have been defective. The airforce needs to be supported by local industry. Mostly import driven approach has not worked for India.

However the number of fighter aircrafts produced locally will increase significantly in coming years. LCA Tejas will be a prime component of this change.

A number of aircrafts are being upgraded and refurbished. The entire IAF fleet is getting rejuvenated. There is a lot of activity in updating the airforce.
 
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jouni

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Finland also had Mig-21´s and pilots were happy with it. Of course high landing speed meant that it was a plane for men, not for boys. Also Finnish Migs were not falling from the skies. MORE THAN HALF OF THE PLANES LOST IN ACCIDENTS, ROTFLMAO....I have never heard anything so funny regarding military matters! Are you planning to kill your enemy by laughter! Maybe you should breath test your pilots before flights for alcohol? Where do you get your pilots from? From Delhi bus drivers? Well that Mig is a little bit faster than a bus...

I can understand accidents in a testing phase for new planes, but this is a reliable workhorse...

 
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Neil

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Finland also had Mig-21´s and pilots were happy with it. Of course high landing speed meant that it was a plane for men, not for boys. Also Finnish Migs were not falling from the skies. MORE THAN HALF OF THE PLANES LOST IN ACCIDENTS, ROTFLMAO....I have never heard anything so funny regarding military matters! Are you planning to kill your enemy by laughter! Maybe you should breath test your pilots before flights for alcohol? Where do you get your pilots from? From Delhi bus drivers? Well that Mig is a little bit faster than a bus...

I can understand accidents in a testing phase for new planes, but this is a reliable workhorse...

:rofl:

are u really from finland? please dont destroy the reputation of your adopted country!!

and yes... IAF has recruitment camp right outside delhi bus depot and metro station and guess what even our bus drivers flying those migs can give the best of finnish pilots a quick way to hell considering Finland has planes to fly!!
 

jouni

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:rofl:

are u really from finland? please dont destroy the reputation of your adopted country!!

and yes... IAF has recruitment camp right outside delhi bus depot and metro station and guess what even our bus drivers flying those migs can give the best of finnish pilots a quick way to hell considering Finland has planes to fly!!
Finland lost 11 migs in 30 years, I guess that answers your question
 

Neil

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Finland lost 11 migs in 30 years, I guess that answers your question
no it doesnt... how many migs did finland fly? how many hours did it flew on an average? what kind of mission/ exercise it was doing? are they still in service?

dont patronize yourself with retarded answers.
 

jouni

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no it doesnt... how many migs did finland fly? how many hours did it flew on an average? what kind of mission/ exercise it was doing? are they still in service?

dont patronize yourself with retarded answers.
Last mig retired 1998. Total there were maybe 100 of them in use. Missions were air space control missions. Total hours I have no clue, I am not an aviator, just watched a documentary of finnish Migs where pilots told it was very demanding for pilot, but when mastered they loved it.

Ok, over 200 lost lives is a tragedy. My condolences. Nevertheless something has gone seriously wrong somewhere for that to happen.
 
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sgarg

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Finland lost 11 migs in 30 years, I guess that answers your question
India has much higher level of dust in air which affects aero-engines. Failure of aero-engines is more prevalent in South Asia.
India also trains more. IAF planes are in air far more than USSR planes. The higher usage converts to more accidents.
You can compare the hours India's Migs have flown with Finland's Migs and then arrive at a conclusion.
 

Neil

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Last mig retired 1998. Total there were maybe 100 of them in use. Missions were air space control missions. Total hours I have no clue, I am not an aviator, just watched a documentary of finnish Migs where pilots told it was very demanding for pilot, but when mastered they loved it.
1. still in service. there goes your claim of it being workhorse and all the bullcrap..u guys retired them 16 years ago

2. 667 in IAF. that screws up averages

3. interceptor roles/ first strike use- way more demanding than your crappy air space control..

4. IAF has highest training hours among airforces in the world. transforming bus drivers into crazy war machines.

5. yeah.. all airforce jobs are demanding..its not exclusive to FAF. may be your university educated pilots couldnt cope with puny challenges..

next time please dont try and compare a Scandinavian military with India.. both in terms of quality and quantity u guys are no match.


Ok, over 200 lost lives is a tragedy. My condolences. Nevertheless something has gone seriously wrong somewhere for that to happen.
using a machine for 40+ years does affects it operation capability. plus IAF mentality of pushing machine way beyond its capacity to train our boys on par with best in the world has its own impact.
 
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jouni

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1. still in service. there goes your claim of it being workhorse and all the bullcrap..u guys retired them 16 years ago

2. 667 in IAF. that screws up averages

3. interceptor roles/ first strike use- way more demanding than your crappy air space control..

4. IAF has highest training hours among airforces in the world. transforming bus drivers into crazy war machines.

5. yeah.. all airforce jobs are demanding..its not exclusive to FAF. may be your university educated pilots couldnt cope with puny challenges..

next time please dont try and compare a Scandinavian military with India.. both in terms of quality and quantity u guys are no match.
Don´t know about other things, but you sure have self confidence! I guess that itself is half the victory. Of course we have not had war for over 70 years, but in the last war kill ratio of Finnish pilots was 29:1. It was not bad.
 

Neil

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Don´t know about other things, but you sure have self confidence! I guess that itself is half the victory. Of course we have not had war for over 70 years, but in the last war kill ratio of Finnish pilots was 29:1. It was not bad.
the feeling is likewise...!!

last war India fought resulted India dividing a country in two parts and taking over complete control of enemy air space.

anyways my outburst was more do with my understanding that u were mocking my dead boys.. even if pilot error- whatever the case may be- doesnt reflect the quality of our boys but systems failure to provide adequate training or natural human faults and gives no rights to anyone to mock my dead.
 
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sgarg

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The IAF accident rate is no longer a serious concern. For a force that flies 1500+ aircrafts, 10-15 losses per year is normal rate. IAF is pretty much in this bracket now.
 

jouni

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It would be interesting to know how many planes have you lost in the battle? Just asking because your wars are not well known here.
 

jouni

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DingDong

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Yes, I know about the problems in Indian school system. Finland is in Europe and Europe is west from India and west is where sun sets and sun is the yellow ball in the sky and...
May be Finland is completely insignificant in geopolitics? What does Finland do to get noticed by other nations?
 

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