Indian Air Force: News & Discussions

[karn]

Unless we are planning on sinking a USN CBG, these aren't white swans they are white elephants.

 

[Aniruddha Mulay]

For maritime strike role, it would be best to use our 12 strong P8I fleet (18 in future) and push for integration AGM-158C LRASM onto our P8I.
A single P8I should easily be capable of carrying 4 LRASM

 

[mist_consecutive]

For maritime strike role, it would be best to use our 12 strong P8I fleet (18 in future) and push for integration AGM-158C LRASM onto our P8I.
A single P8I should easily be capable of carrying 4 LRASM

Should get F/A-18 Hornets in extra numbers for maritime strike role, freeing Jaguars and Su-30MKIs from it. F/A-18 + P8I is a deadly combo and plethora of anti-ship munitions that nobody will dare cross the Malacca strait.

 

[Blademaster]

Lmao.. atleast check what "strategic bombers" ChingChong have.

H-6.. It can barely carry 8 ton.
JH-7 .. Can carry 10 ton.
Su-30MKI missile truck... Can carry 8 ton .

THis is just some scumbag Import lobby activated through bribing..

Wiki says 12 tons for H-6 payload capability.

 

[NutCracker]

Wiki says 12 tons for H-6 payload capability.

H-6k variant entered 1 decade back and probably make 5-10 % of their fleet

 

[ezsasa]

Unless we are planning on sinking a USN CBG, these aren't white swans they are white elephants.

At a conceptual level.

Strategic thinking and Tactical thinking should not be put in the same box, tactical thinking starts after strategic thinking ends.

Just like nuclear weapons prevented a lot of loss of blood of Indian soldiers in past decades, without nuclear weapons situation would have been even more unstable at the western, northern and eastern borders. in a similar manner having strategic long distance strike capability will find it's own use cases among future tactical thinkers twenty thirty years down the line.

the way power dynamics work is, " oh, they have a white elephant in their front yard of their fort, what else do they have in their basement that they are not telling us about". just like we frequently presume that U.S has some or other trick up their sleeve, here at DFI.

 

[Javelin_Sam]

6 Blackjacks. A 60% availability means 3 complete airframes and the Russkies will demand an arm and leg to keep up the supply of spares. It will be maintenance intensive. No doubt about that. Now who are we scaring with 3 Blackjacks on standby with these fancy glide vehicles? What increased strategic advantage it gives in addition to the Arihant class SLBMs with 2*4 and 2*8 MiRV capable SLBMs. This is just the IAF ego to have some fancy Strategic strike option while the NAVY platforms has taken over as the premier strategic strike option from the days of Mirages in Gwalior tasked for Nuclear delivery

 

[DEV1729]

6 Blackjacks. A 60% availability means 3 complete airframes and the Russkies will demand an arm and leg to keep up the supply of spares. It will be maintenance intensive. No doubt about that. Now who are we scaring with 3 Blackjacks on standby with these fancy glide vehicles? What increased strategic advantage it gives in addition to the Arihant class SLBMs with 2*4 and 2*8 MiRV capable SLBMs. This is just the IAF ego to have some fancy Strategic strike option while the NAVY platforms has taken over as the premier strategic strike option from the days of Mirages in Gwalior tasked for Nuclear delivery

Better to have 20 more tejas mk1a with the same price of 1 tu160

 

[IndianHawk]

Well, both have the world No.1 navy targeting them from drive way. So, they all need a large bomber fleet to launch massive number of anti-ship missiles in a single wave. Americans claim that they can intercept 12 missiles in the same time, then attacker need shoot 24 missiles in one wave. With Su30, you will need 24 planes to do the job, but even with Chinese old H-6, you only need 4. Besides, these bombers' long range also provide more mission flexibility.
In the case of India, none of her top enemies can organise such a navy power in Indian Ocean in 20 years.

India still needs to destroy infrastructure in Tibet and might need saturation attacks against bridges , railway tracks to cut off Tibet from mainland.

And anyway a proper bomber fleet will require decade plus to put in place.

 

[karn]

At a conceptual level.

Strategic thinking and Tactical thinking should not be put in the same box, tactical thinking starts after strategic thinking ends.

Just like nuclear weapons prevented a lot of loss of blood of Indian soldiers in past decades, without nuclear weapons situation would have been even more unstable at the western, northern and eastern borders. in a similar manner having strategic long distance strike capability will find it's own use cases among future tactical thinkers twenty thirty years down the line.

the way power dynamics work is, " oh, they have a white elephant in their front yard of their fort, what else do they have in their basement that they are not telling us about". just like we frequently presume that U.S has some or other trick up their sleeve, here at DFI.

I would disagree in this particular case on these Russian bombers.
Our nukes and their delivery options are ambiguous since most of that was made using almost all locally made equipment with no publicity.
Case in point are our nuke subs ..
Everyone is guessing. We only go to know that a new one has been launched from satellite images.
On the bomber front a tailless stealth bomber derived from the ghatak/ucav would be a far better use of our resources. Especially in the keep them guessing front .

I mentioned USN cbgs cause there nothing else on sea or land that merits a large cruise missile firing bomber for India. + If navies are investing in anti missile tech the high speed of this bomber will not protect it .

But would it be "cool" to have tu 160s ?. absolutely

 

[ezsasa]

I would disagree in this particular case on these Russian bombers.
Our nukes and their delivery options are ambiguous since most of that was made using almost all locally made equipment with no publicity.
Case in point are our nuke subs ..
Everyone is guessing. We only go to know that a new one has been launched from satellite images.
On the bomber front a tailless stealth bomber derived from the ghatak/ucav would be a far better use of our resources. Especially in the keep them guessing front .

I mentioned USN cbgs cause there nothing else on sea or land that merits a large cruise missile firing bomber for India. + If navies are investing in anti missile tech the high speed of this bomber will not protect it .

But would it be "cool" to have tu 160s ?. absolutely

There are plenty of land that needs to be accessible if need arises.

 

[IndianHawk]

Russia and China both consider the US to be their primary enemy - an enemy that is one entire ocean away, is protected by multiple layers of island bases in the pacific, and many nations' air forces on the other.

They need bombers that have enhanced range and payload to carry a few dozen cruise missiles close enough to launch at the US - to threaten US assets.

We dwell cheek by jowl with China and Pakistan - any and all stand off weapons brings there principal assets well within our striking reach.

Our aim should be ground their air force and not suffer the same fate. Your bombers wont get time to take off before the runways and hangars are cratered.

Use your standoff missiles Nirbhay and Prthvi (with clustered munitions) to destroy their air fields.

Let swarms of unmanned wingman drones take care of their IADS - open up their defenses, then see what Jaguars and Sukhois and Tejas can do to ground units.

Our enemy China have all major cities far away from our border. And their upcoming naval bases will also be far away ( in Djibouti and south east asia. )

 

[IndianHawk]

Unless we are planning on sinking a USN CBG, these aren't white swans they are white elephants.

Chinese will have CBG in Indian Ocean within a decade or two.

 

[binayak95]

Our enemy China have all major cities far away from our border. And their upcoming naval bases will also be far away ( in Djibouti and south east asia. )

Djibouti ko hit karne bomber loge? When one P17/Talwar/Delhi/Kolkata is all you need. And you want to hit cities with bombers?

Kya hai yeh? 1000 bomber RAF run on Hamburg.

 

[binayak95]

Chinese will have CBG in Indian Ocean within a decade or two.

And that CBG will find itself caught between Malacca and Hormuz and nowhere to hide

 

[karn]

Chinese will have CBG in Indian Ocean within a decade or two.

Have we saturated our defence in the Andaman sea ?
I'm not against bombers per say . But there are so many platforms from which cruise missiles can be launched in numbers that are already operated by our military.
From Andaman land based missiles , land based su 30s .An Oscar type sub .
The Americans built bombers to carry gravity bomb nukes .. now retrofitted to carry cruise missiles.
The USSR built bombers to saturate the air defence of a USN carrier group .
What is the envisioned role of a bomber for us ?

There are plenty of land that needs to be accessible if need arises.

View attachment 166954

I get your point but .. what is the goal exactly ? Evict the Americans from Diego Garcia ?
We don't have colonial island possessions near Africa that need protecting .
Everyone else in this periphery other than our land neighbours are friendly.
Other than that the Southern Indian Ocean is a desert of no value(there aren't even trade lanes there). It's remoteness was pretty well highlighted during the search for that Malaysian plane .

 

[Suryavanshi]

When the budget permits. Right now priority is to shore up squadron numbers. We might see a program for bomber starting by 2030.

Why do we even want strategic Bomber?
Where and how are we going to use it.
China maintains Strategic Bomber for fuck all reason.
Russia uses it in Syria for neutralizing ISIS and mostly limited to flattening guerilla fighters
USA hasn't used them properly since Vietnam.

We are flattening no cities so Bomber is not needed.

Our top priority should be.
1)turboprop, turbojet, tubofan self reliance from small helicopter to Transport carrier
2)rest I'm too lazy to write

 

[johnj]

Before we buy this huge white elephant, at least try to reach the required sanctioned strength of IAF.

Its a joke, no Tu 160 is for sale, but <200MT nuclear bomb is, another joke>

 

[IndianHawk]

yeah this idiot Karnad speaks from his ass. He's the other Field Marshall Eric von Sweinstein

Karnad was part of team that wrote the nuclear doctrine for India.

 

[IndianHawk]

Djibouti ko hit karne bomber loge? When one P17/Talwar/Delhi/Kolkata is all you need. And you want to hit cities with bombers?

Kya hai yeh? 1000 bomber RAF run on Hamburg.

Chinese bases will multiply all over Africa and south east asia and central asia in near future. Stop living in past look at threats of future.