Curious how do Indians define their “friendship”, like with Israel? [emoji1]
China can claim a friendship more profound with Israelis than India.
I would actually wish an Israeli friendship on you Chinese
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But more seriously there are all kinds of people in all directions but do not allow yourself to judge Indians by the lazy people who swear by the West on here.
With these techs, Chinese defence industries leap forward 20 years. Chinese already got everything they need to build their own "Rafale" and "LECLERC".
Congratulations for that. But believe me even a J-31 or the J-20 will turn out better than that level of tech. Which is one of the reasons why a lot of Indians with interest in Arms tech, are against Rafale (not saying that Rafale is totally useless). So I really fail to understand why this back and forth with other members.
British carrier
INS Vikrant played as backbone of your navy in 1965 and 1971 wars;
British made Hawker carried the attack from this carrier;
A bunch of FYIs for you.
INS Vikrant sat out the 1965 war like our Air Force sat out the 1962 war. INS Vikrant was undergoing repairs and refurbishments. Strangely that did not stop the Pakis from claiming a kill on INS Vikrant....WTH
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In 1971, the INS Vikrant did do a lot of work but it did it in a state of impaired capacity. Only reason INS Vikrant worked was because of the excellent counter-intel work by Indian Intel and the completely bullshitty intel work by Pakis.
Imagine a new Paki commander searching for a ship inside the harbour where the prey was not present after near a weak past the point when PNS Ghazi should have been back to home base and then the most face-saving story being that the PNS Ghazi struck one of its own mines. Man you made my New Year this year. Happy New Year.
The case for Hawker Sea Hawks is even worse. We had, laboring under political stupidity, witnessed only in Indian subcontinent, bought a dead end aircraft with a dead end engine. You could say Sea Hawk was a Rafale of its times. The engine was a Centrifugal compressor engine. Something that was absolutely and clearly on its way out of aviation, with the world military aviation moving towards Axial compressor engines. The fcuking combination of INS Vikrant and Sea Hawks was so bloody funny that in one incident many years after the 71 war the catapult misfired, the Sea Hawk with a western pilot in it landed in water, INS Vikrant went right over the fcuking Sea Hawk and then the pilot ejected from under the water.
The western arms are basically the only reason you Chinese get to pass off as a more fearsome fighting force compared to us Indians. Had it not been for our selectee officer class, every single file soldier from the Indian side (right upto Col. level) is way better than a Chinese soldier.
Anywho just to correct your impressions the INS Vikrant had a complement of something like 8 Hawker Sea Hawks. Only idiots would get impressed/threatened by that. Only reason INS Vikrant seems to have worked well in 71 war was because:
1) the Indian Intel turned out superior and because the Indian Navy Brass turned out to be superior commander. They understood their SWOT better. Zimple as that. And kudos to that capacity. Hope the IN brass keeps its heads above the water all the times, figuratively speaking.
2) eastern front had only a brown water navy from the Pakis side. It was goddamned easy killing them off on the eastern front. Not belittling the IN on the eastern front but then the IN effort on the eastern front can never really match the effort and achievement on the Western front. The members who know their history know why. And most of the killer stuff on the western stuff was of Russian origin.
French Mirage 2000 provided great help in Kargil war.
This is another myth that has gained ground only because of voluble western inspired propaganda. And general stupidity of some Indians, who also happen to be suckers for everything western.
Reality is we Indians let off a grand total of 9 Laser Guided Bombs in the Kargil wars. Ex-IAF honchos and fanboys generally credit a lot of undeserved success to the LGBs in Kargil but there has been some dissenting voices also where some people in the know have let out that the LGBs were a dead end idea for high altitude bombings. Reality is most of the bombing was done the old fashioned way. Fortunately the Mirage 2000 had some of the similar targeting equipment that Russians had but only better cued with lasers and faster onboard computing. Mirage 2000 had something like a rudimentary SVP-24. And despite that my guess is the Mig27 would have worked just as well. Russian in Afghanistan, nearly 10-15 years back had faced problems with their LGBs and they worked out a dumber alternative with about 30 ft CEP but without laser cueing.
But, still, not "alliance".
And you should be thankful for that. Not being an ally allows you to look out for your own interests. Wish we can have some of that here in India.
Ok Happy New Year. BTW, is the Monkey year a good one or a bothersome one?