IAF top brass is happy with anything foreign that flies, IF you too threw a french towel from top of a building, IAF top brass would be inclined to buy it..
What's wrong with the old one?
It has enough service life left and they have been partially refurbished as required.
Then it does beg the question what really was worth 50 million of upgrade per unit?
Not every plane needs an AESA.
In todays skies, if the plane is deemed to be a fighter that is expected to fight off opposition it is needed.
At least IAF top brass felt that it was very important that they told HAL clearly that without an AESA which is need of the decade, they will not accept Tejas. But then when it comes to Mirage 2000 upgrade. they do not consider it important? Would in your world, Tejas and Mirage 2000 have different roles like two end of the spectrum where Tejas should have an AESA where as Mirage 2000 would not need it? It is not a dedicated Deep strike plane which would not need an AESA.
Speaking of non-AESAs, what does EL/M-2032 (that we're fitting on Tejas Mk-1 and some Jaguar upgrade variants) offer that RDY-2 does not?
Tejas Mk 1 is just to get things going, it is like a compromise.. but then building an entire new Tejas Mk1 is much cheaper than mere upgrade of Mirage 2000, I am asking your view on justification of such high cost for Mirage 2000 upgrade that does not bring in new engines, or AESA or anything excepts nuts and bolts produced in this decade.
If your image of an "upgrade" was re-painting the old stuff, you have the wrong idea. The radar, avionics and EW suites are all brand new - derived from the Rafale's tech (not all of them are as capable, but fruit of the same tree nevertheless...much better than the old stuff).
When the upgrade does not consist of either a new engine, or AESA radar or some avionics whose off the shelf price does not exceed 10 million then what should one ask
The EW suite, is the overhyped SPECTRA? No its not, Is this EW suite as capable as SPECTRA, possibly not else it would be bad marketing by Dassault. The point is that this upgrade was collusion between Dassault, congress and IAF top brass who take the decisions which in a way cannot justify the high cost of upgrades. Specially when MICA were purchased with a separate contract. A new Tejas comes at US$ 40 million a plane with imported GE engine, and just an upgrade of Mirage 2000 without new engine or anything cutting edge costs almost 25% more than tejas, Something is wrong, Something is very very wrong.
Further, going by this yardstick, if india takes the Rafale, the cost of upgrades over its lifetime might end up costing us almost 500 million a plane.. Imagine that.
The analogue systems in the cockpit are all replaced by a proper Glass cockpit with MFDs. Plus there is a new HMDS (jointly produced by Thales & SAMTEL).
Plus it includes the purchase price of nearly 500 MICA missiles (that part of the deal alone is worth around $1.2bn)....It is easy to disregard the details and just yell at everything that you don't like. It's plausible that around half of the upgrade contract went for the purchase of new missiles. And you're shouting that we're spending 50mil per plane.
Try not to confuse yourself, There were two separate contracts, One was for upgrade and another was MICA contract. Both were a separate contracts but linked, because MICA are to be used only by MIRAGE 2000 in IAF.
http://www.business-standard.com/ar...aded-mirage-2000-fighters-115032600035_1.html
Also another point to add is that Mirage 2000 in its service in IAF has undergone overhaul twice The entire Mirage 2000 fleet underwent a first round of overhaul from 1991-94. The second overhaul round began in 2009.. so what was the fuss when Su-30 MKI were being overhauled?
What would be the point of having planes if you don't have missiles to fire off them?
Very true, then IAF and its top brass had the vision to have Mirage 2000 with laser guided smart bombs.. but they did not have the kit that would enable Mirage 2000 to use the laser guided bombs.
So it does not make sense to have a plane but no missiles, but it does make sense to have a plane for 15 years and with laser guided bombs, but not have targeting pods? I am lost for the logic, IAF top brass and yours. IAF top brass are one of the most incompetent top brass who look at the kickbacks possible with each potential purchase. In my book, IAF are slightly higher than the local police in terms of patriotism.
Up to 200-220 is very much possible. Beyond that I'm not sure.
Take your time, you will end up pushing the number to 300. Already NAVY seems eager to have Tejas not only on carrier but also on their land bases which they plan to develop for protection of the maritime coast. This will give the Naval Tejas much more versatility to be able to operate from land or carrier, The only draw back here is that usually the land version of carrier based planes can relax on many things specially the landing gear or land based plane and air frame need not be very strong and hence heavy. But then this will in a way be actually more useful than the gimmick of Mirage 2000 landing on national highway.
For a mirage 2000 to land on any highway, firstly the highway will have to be sealed, and further,, highway is not something that can be hidden, Thus an easy and stationary target, but on other hand, ability to take off from land bases, and to land on carrier, refuel, rearm and then complete is mission gives N-LCA much more versatility.
My views exactly. India will be very happy to keep the discussions on. The French can be happy too keeping the discussions on, But the discussions are going nowhere and DM is not eager to close these either. In short its his way or the highway. But he is not going to shut the door, not as yet, he will let the French decide on their own if they accept his terms and conditions and of course prices. He need not push the french, the Americans are already seeing a huge potential to be big supplier to India. So without actually doing anything the screws are being tightened on the French. And perhaps by the time the French agree, it might be game set and match Americans, with the french left holding their tennis balls.
That would be the Malaysian Su-30MKM. It has everything MKI has, plus on top of that it has MAWS.
MAWS are there on most fighter planes. MKM has MAWS. Su-30 MKI uses Elta EL/M-8222 which is ESM based will be doing job of both Warning as well as jamming the incoming missile. So MKM has a system that alerts about a missile approach, Su-30 MKI has Elta EL/M-8222 which jams the approaching missile.
There are two versions and both are FGFA, a single-seat and a twin-seat variant. Production of the former should start by around 2024 according to current plans. An initial $4bn will be spent by either side (India & Russia, total $8bn) on the R&D and setting up of production facilities.
And then the purchase of the first tranche of 60 aircraft should cost about $13bn at about $225mn per plane, and that's not including weapons.
But it's totally worth it.
. Best of luck.
