I dont think they want to fly the MiGs anymore. They want the latest and greatest from the arms market but govt cant afford large scale orders. Its downright compulsion now due to the nat-sec situation and the result of poor planning and also their not backing the Tejas program enough. At least now after the 83 order there is some hope.
MiG-21s crash because they have overstayed their life-cycle by over 3 decades. Also, all the governments and the IAS are responsible for the murder by constantly creating bottlenecks in military modernization. This is where I envy the more decisive models that are semi-democratic or non-democratic like Singapore. When it comes to defense, they don't fuck around.
At this point its not even about MIG 21 crashes but the loss of pilots that is hurting.
Added: Defence expenditure (specifically capex in this case) is a golden metric to track, the proverbial "put your money where your mouth is". Indigenous tech can be cheaper in some cases but not always, and building that technology base always takes serious investment over decades (we aren’t doing that either). But please don’t fall for narrative that we can do some bania* scheme where we will get double the stuff for just half the money. You get what you pay for. I wold recommend going through the thread Yousif has put together a couple of years back, which has some of the trending data defence expenditures.Please look at the big picture. Compare the authorised squadron strength of IAF and how many squadrons we actually have and and how many active squadrons that need to be replaced. And then calculate how many fighters we need to be buying every year to get to that number in a reasonable period of time (say 15 years). The answer is we to be buying around 2 squadrons every year for 10 years to make up the numbers.
But we are doing half or even less than that every year. 36 Rafales and 83 Tejas Mk1A is at most enough to just stabilising the IAF strength at 30-32 (including obsolete fighters like Mig-21). The new ACM also recently confirmed that fighter strength will not exceed 35 squadrons even by 2030. And thats only fighters, force multipliers like refuellers are a whole other shit show.
Posting a few stories below from the past few years to jog your memory, the defence budget (excluding pensions) was being squeezed year after, even allocating less capital budget than committed expenses for the year. Also withholding payment to HAL for aircraft already delivered (don’t know how much the situation has improved but RM shamelessly handing over HAL LCHs to the Forces with out even paying for it is cringe).
Even coming to Tejas Mk1A, supposedly Manohar Parrikar brain child, they dragged their feet on completing the deal the and signed it only in 2021 (a full 4 years after he stepped down as RM), i.e. after the MKI line shutdown and most of Rafales were delivered and those liabilities were covered. If the pandemic had not happened and HAL had delivered the initial 40 IOC/FOC even slightly faster the line would have come to a halt waiting for orders.
Defence Budget Dashed Our Modernisation Hopes, May End 25 'Make in India' Projects: Army Vice-chief - News18
Lt Gen Sarath Chand told the Parliamentary Panel on Defence that allocation of Rs 21,388 crore foe modernisation is insufficient even to cater for committed payments of Rs 29.033 crore for 125 ongoing schemes, emergency procurement and other requirements.www.news18.com
HAL | Rafale: HAL's rare cash crunch: IAF sits on dues of Rs 14,500 crore
HAL has never been so precarious financially. Last week it was revealed that its cash in hand was in negative.economictimes.indiatimes.com
No it isn't, what you said is pretty immature
Firstly the 42 squadron was arrived at long back and has not been revised. Not included the tech upgrade or the force multipliers in that equation either. I don't know if the revised numbers are going to go up or to go down now but just putting it out there that it was done quite a while ago and needs to be revised.Please look at the big picture. Compare the authorised squadron strength of IAF and how many squadrons we actually have and and how many active squadrons that need to be replaced. And then calculate how many fighters we need to be buying every year to get to that number in a reasonable period of time (say 15 years). The answer is we to be buying around 2 squadrons every year for 10 years to make up the numbers.
But we are doing half or even less than that every year. 36 Rafales and 83 Tejas Mk1A is at most enough to just stabilising the IAF strength at 30-32 (including obsolete fighters like Mig-21). The new ACM also recently confirmed that fighter strength will not exceed 35 squadrons even by 2030. And thats only fighters, force multipliers like refuellers are a whole other shit show.
Posting a few stories below from the past few years to jog your memory, the defence budget (excluding pensions) was being squeezed year after, even allocating less capital budget than committed expenses for the year. Also withholding payment to HAL for aircraft already delivered (don’t know how much the situation has improved but RM shamelessly handing over HAL LCHs to the Forces with out even paying for it is cringe).
Even coming to Tejas Mk1A, supposedly Manohar Parrikar brain child, they dragged their feet on completing the deal the and signed it only in 2021 (a full 4 years after he stepped down as RM), i.e. after the MKI line shutdown and most of Rafales were delivered and those liabilities were covered. If the pandemic had not happened and HAL had delivered the initial 40 IOC/FOC even slightly faster the line would have come to a halt waiting for orders.
Defence Budget Dashed Our Modernisation Hopes, May End 25 'Make in India' Projects: Army Vice-chief - News18
Lt Gen Sarath Chand told the Parliamentary Panel on Defence that allocation of Rs 21,388 crore foe modernisation is insufficient even to cater for committed payments of Rs 29.033 crore for 125 ongoing schemes, emergency procurement and other requirements.HAL | Rafale: HAL's rare cash crunch: IAF sits on dues of Rs 14,500 crore
HAL has never been so precarious financially. Last week it was revealed that its cash in hand was in negative.
We should do it in mass ..Atleast send them the email ..This is a national shame ..No accountability is making it worse
Well, let's see how the new ACM is. But we should write to both of them. Anyone want to initiate the letter here? How and what's the contacting process?
www.timesofisrael.com
I know that i am replying late with regards to this topic but I will still post though.
