Indian Air Force: News & Discussions

[AMCA]

IAF to conduct biggest combat exercise along Pak, China borders

ANI | Updated: Apr 06, 2018 01:28 PM IST

New Delhi [India] April 6 (ANI): The Indian Air Force (IAF) is going to conduct its biggest ever combat exercise along Pakistan and China borders.

The exercise- Gagan Shakti, 2018- will be taking place between April 10 to 23. Depending upon the order of the Air Force Chief, the Air Force will mobilise its assets in the war scenario within 48 hours of the orders.

Meanwhile, the IAF is readying to mobilise its entire asset and equipment inventory to conduct its biggest exercise ever.

IAF will mobilise more than 1100 combat, transport and rotary wing (helicopter) aircraft in order to practice the real time scenario, to be conducted day and night, of Combat with the enemy encompassing along Pakistan border in the Western areas and along Chinaborder in the Northern areas.

For the first time, the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas will be taking part in the exercise and will perform both the offensive and defensive roles. Navy's Maritime Combat Aircraft MiG 29s will also take part.

As per the protocol, Pakistanhas been informed. The scale of the exercise can be gauged from the fact that just from Air Force more than 300 officers and more than 15,000 airmen have been mobilised. Joint operations scenario with the Army and the Navy are part of this exercise.

The pan India synergised exercise will showcase the multi spectrum capabilities, both offensive and defensive. The IAF will conduct all terrain operations- desert, high altitude, maritime scenarios and special operations- in the real time.

Mobility and resilience of air combat operations will be visible from the fact that Aircraft from Bhuj in Gujarat will fly towards Assam and conduct bombing and simultaneously aircraft from Assam will fly towards deserts of Rajasthan and will do bombing. Also, inter valley transfer of troops and equipments will be performed.

A senior IAF officer on the condition of anonymity told ANI, "The exercise will cover from the heights of 20,000 ft to the extreme hot areas of the desert and also the maritime scenarios. We will be utilising all the Air Force firing ranges. The IAF will be conducting landing at Advanced Landing Grounds, Improvised Airstrips and helipads."

During the exercise, 1100 aircraft will be flying three-four sorties in a day with the cumulative sorties reaching to the count of 3300 to 4400 in a day.

In order to maintain optimum turn around, keeping the aircraft Combat ready; Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) will be placing their technicians at the maintenance bases. Apart from the Defence assets there is participation of the railways and civil aviation manpower and machinery. (ANI)

 

[WolfPack86]

I wonder which fighter aircraft India will choose.

 

[scatterStorm]

Another stunt to showcase how our MOD do things there way. Nevertheless, 5 squadrons of FA-18F and 3 squadrons worth of FA18-G variant will be a good bet. No F16s ... we don't need em.

 

[Samsung J7]

No one is going to give ToT for 15 billion. Gulf countries r giving shit load of money to western countries. In the end we might end up with ruskies. They will royally screw us in the name of ToT.

 

[Samsung J7]

Also this new tender will hav negative impact on LCA Tejas.

Also Modi government should answer why they decided to buy only 36 rafales. Why they wasted money on india specific modifications in rafale.

 

[indus]

Havent gone through the tender details, but if experts could tell if this tender is same as single engine fighter contest in a new name or not???.

 

[patriots]

a list of fighter
1.su35
2.mig29
3.mig35
4.f16
5.gripen E
6 .F18
7.Rafale
8.Eurofighter

expected contestants.......

and there will be 2 winner I think one for twin engine another single engine

 

[binayak95]

No, this looks as open ended as the MRCA one. Which makes me think this is aiming at Rafale/F-18.

Havent gone through the tender details, but if experts could tell if this tender is same as single engine fighter contest in a new name or not???.

 

[Samsung J7]

Also 115 jets flyaway cost alone will be more than 15 billion. Airforce will need billions of dollars for weapons and infrastructure for these jet. Then we hav s400 deal which will cost 6-7 billion. Where will from money come for transport aircrafts, awacs,5th generation jets. Whole defence procurement is corrupt shit in India.Even 10 % commission in this deal means 1.5 bill USD kickback money

 

[Samsung J7]

$20 billion defence project: India kicks off process to procure 110 fighter jets for IAF

https://m.timesofindia.com/india/20...fighter-jets-for-iaf/articleshow/63646424.cms

NEW DELHI: It's jet set, go, all over again! India has kicked off a fresh dogfight for its $20 billion "mother of all defence deals" by re-inviting global aviation majors to compete for producing fighter jets in India under the government's "strategic partnership" policy.


Same shite. prestitutes, iaf officials, defence ministry officials r in glee. will earn lot of kick back for them. Tejas fate is sealed

 

[indus]

Why is @Samsung J7 running in afterburner mode.
Everything else may be same but we dont have AK Antony this time as the D.M

 

[aditya10r]

Oh god

Not this drama again.

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[Samsung J7]

Why is @Samsung J7 running in afterburner mode.
Everything else may be same but we dont have AK Antony this time as the D.M

Antony may be inept. But there is not single corruption charge against him

 

[indus]

Antony may be inept. But there is not single corruption charge against him

logic just died today.

 

[Tanmay]

Antony may be inept. But there is not single corruption charge against him

Very difficult to be called corrupt when you never bought anything that was required by the Forces.

 

[Samsung J7]

Very difficult to be called corrupt when you never bought anything that was required by the Forces.

Scorpene submarines, c 130s, C17 globemaster, many ships

 

[mayfair]

Scorpene submarines, c 130s, C17 globemaster, many ships

Scorpene submarines- Negotiations began in 1999 when George Fernandes was the Def Min., signed in 2005 when Pranab Mukherjee was the Antony happened only in 2006.

C130J and C-17 were a part of Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme i.e. G2G deal in 2008 and 2009 respectively, chiefly at the initiative of PM MMS.

Many ships??? What the heck does that mean?

I am curious to know how many offensive weapon systems were purchased between 2004 and 2014.

 

[Tanmay]

Scorpene submarines, c 130s, C17 globemaster, many ships

C130, C-17 were G2G deals. Its said there's No scope or corruption in G2G but there's no competition so price negotiation is difficult. But at the end these are SINGLE VENDOR deals.

Ships are Indian made by PSUs. If you are telling about Talwar class then I think those were G2G deals. Primarily to balance Russian debt and bail their shipyards.

What they have failed to do in ten years of successive govt (and perhaps last 60 years ) is to put together a good multi vendor competition based procurement policy which works.

Look at the fate of so called competitive deals
MMRCA - Ends us as G2G with just 36 instead of mother of all deals with 126 fighters.
Spike ATGM - Ends up as G2G
Aerial Refuling Tanker - still stuck after 15 years
MCMV - still stuck
VIP chopper - Lost Cause
LUH - retendered. Russian Ku-226T selected. But contract nowhere to be seen

NMRH - Cancelled again.
Medium Patrol Aircraft - no headway
Artillery - Not one inducted during UPA. M777 deliveries started now. Indigenous development on progress now.

Assault Rifles - Rifles tested /failed retendered.

And have a look at G2G deals.

Amriki deals
C-17
C130
Apache
Chinook
M777
ins jalaswa with helos

France
Scorpene (I think this too was G2G)

Germany
U-204

Israel
Phalcon
Barak srsam
All UAVs
Spike ATGM
Tavor

Russian
Mi-17 v5
All fighters.
T55 T72 T90 ( historical reasons. USSR leanings )
Il-76 Il-78

It's pretty clear that G2G deals are uncompetitive. Sometimes they can be justified as there are no other similar products (C-17 vs IL-76 or C130). But others were plain avoidable with a properly drafted POLICY. We wouldn't have been in this situation if DPP were more thought of in a better way rather than cancelling and running for G2G deals.
Let's see if the NDA drafted policies work after all retendering.

 

[Sancho]

1 IAF squadron is 21 aircrafts (16 single seat + 2 twin seat for training purposes + 3 operational spares). Though in some cases a squadron may be less than 21 also.

No, most IAF squads have only 18 fighters, LCA has 20, MKI is often refered to 16, since no dedicated trainers are needed.

 

[Sancho]

There is no end to this nautanki. If they want another plane why the fuck they ordered costly 36 rafales . Why they wasted money in India specific modifications in rafale.

1. The government didn't ordered 36 Rafale, the PM did, while the rest of his government were still in negotiations for the MMRCA Rafale deal.

2. The PM made a bad deal to show off something, ahead of cancelling the MMRCA.

3. They issued RFIs for the SE MMRCA, to cover the rest of the MMRCA requirement, in a more cost-effective way. But failed economic policies and record low defence spending, made a tender impossible. Now they got India back to the start with MMRCA 2.0, to delay any decision on new fighters till after the elections.

4. Yes the Rafale deal was a huge waste of money, since 9 billion USD for them and estimated around 15 billion for the new tender, is not cheaper than buying 126 x Rafales or EFs in the first place. Making a U turn back to MMRCA, just proves that the government is completely clueless on defence modernisation and support of IAF!

5. Indian specific customisations, are capability corrections / additions, to comply to IAFs operational requirements and not limited to Rafale but apply to nearly any fighter in the fleet.