Mirage upgrade: To be completed within 10 years

[Pintu]

Mirage-2000 upgrade to be completed in 10 years | The Asian Age

Mirage-2000 upgrade to be completed in 10 years

Aug 02, 2011 |
PTI

|

New Delhi

The upgrade of the 51 Mirage 2000 aircraft in the Indian Air Force (IAF) fleet will be completed within the next ten years, the Lok Sabha was informed.

"The upgrade is expected to be completed within a period ten years from the date of signing the contract," Defence Minister A.K. Antony said in a written response yesterday.

Indian and French companies Dassault Aviation and Thales had signed a deal worth Rs 10,947 crore to upgrade the IAF fleet of Mirage 2000 aircraft, which will help in extending the life of the war planes by another over two decades.

As per the proposal, the first two aircraft would be sent to France for upgrade by the two companies and the rest would be done by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at its facilities in Bengaluru.

The upgrade will enhance the avionics as well as the weapons delivery capability of the aircraft, the Minister said.

India had inducted the fleet of Mirages in the mid-80s and only three aircraft of it have been lost to accidents in the last over two and a half decades.

The proposal to upgrade the aircraft was hanging for quite some time as India was engaged in long negotiations with the French companies on several issues including the cost of the upgrades.

 

[sathya]

thats like 5 aircrafts per year..

its also interesting, previously it was mentioned to be 2005 standard.., now they are saying 2009 level

 

[Sridhar]

Dassault and Thales confirms the modernization of Indian Mirage 2000

on 29/07/2011 at 12:18 The two companies today announced the signing of the contract for the retrofit of the 51 Indian hunters.

In a terse press release issued this morning , Dassault Aviation and Thales announce the signing of the contract for the modernization of 51 Mirage fighters 2000H/TH Indian Air Force (IAF), thus confirming the green light is given by New Delhi is ten days (cf. A & C No. 2275). The total contract value is estimated at about € 1.7 billion excluding armaments.

Short on details, the two French manufacturers specify only that contract is "the integration of equipment and systems of last generation that will allow the optimization of technical and operational capabilities of the Mirage 2000." In fact, it's a real facelift which will benefit the Indians single-engine, which will be brought to a standard similar to that of the Mirage 2000-9 and UAE Mirage 2000-5 Greek. The first four hunters should be processed in France, while the rest will be retrofitted in India. No timetable has been announced, but all indications are that this project could be extended until 2016-2017.

At the heart of the new navigation and attack radar is the RDY-3, the ultimate evolution of the family RDY which a reduced-size version has been built on the Moroccan Mirage F1 modernized. This radar will provide the fire control air-air missiles to be selected to equip the aircraft - probably the MBDA Mica, as amended from infrared-guided and electromagnetic. It will also be associated with a helmet sight Dash, of Israeli origin.

Self-protection devices will also be renovated , with the integration of the latest version of ICMS (Integrated Counter Measures Continued) Thales, which will include equipping aircraft new capabilities for detecting and warning of electromagnetic interference .

In the longer term, the renovation of air-ground capabilities of the fleet is also envisaged. Originally delivered as air defense aircraft, the Mirage 2000H/TH in India have benefited local improvements have enabled them to implement the laser guided weapons, and that using the Israeli LITENING pod. A small part of the fleet would also have been elevated to a strategic vector, with the capability of delivering nuclear gravity bombs.

The adoption of the RDY-3, with its advanced air-ground modes (mapping, terrain following, synthetic imaging ...) will strengthen these capacities. Moreover, a tender should be launched for the purchase of new guided weapons for that platform. For now, Sagem / MBDA would include in the running for the supply of AASM, facing an Israeli offer to base the guidance kit Spice.

GS

Dassault et Thales confirment la modernisation des Mirage 2000 indiens - Air&Cosmos

 

[nrj]

Armand,

Can you explain why Dassault would take 10yrs for this upgrade?

 

[Sridhar]

France will take 2-4 years as mentioned in various new articles . The rest will be 6-7 years , by HAL. If we are really worried about timeline we should devote more resources.

 

[himanshugoswami]

This is really ridiculous- we should have looked at selling our Mirages at say 15 - 20 M apiece, add the per plane cost of the upgrades and we would be close to the cost of a new Rafale......

 

[A.V.]

This is really ridiculous- we should have looked at selling our Mirages at say 15 - 20 M apiece, add the per plane cost of the upgrades and we would be close to the cost of a new Rafale......

money always dosent work that day , the expertise gained over the machine over a period of time with effort and investment would be lost , to master a new aircraft needs a long time and investment of infrastructure other then just money.

compare this upgrade we will have a good mastered aircraft with modern avionics and our boys can cut throat in case of conflict

 

[sayareakd]

HAL has its hands full in coming years, lot of manpower to be hire if they want to complete all the orders.

 

[Sridhar]

Naik defends Mirage aircraft upgrade

 

[Sridhar]

from 2010 interview

Upgrading Mirages better option than buying new aircraft: PV Naik
Published: Wednesday, Apr 7, 2010, 15:54 IST
Place: Gandhinagar | Agency: PTI


Air Chief Marshal PV Naik today said that upgrading old Mirage fighter aircraft is a better option than buying new fighter planes.

When asked why Air Force was spending millions of dollars in upgrading old Mirages as the money could well be used in buyingnew Sukhois, Naik said, "When you buy an (fighter) aircraft itis not only the aircraft that you buy, you spend money in training people, erecting infrastructure, logistics, spares supply and life time support."

"The residual life of the 50 odd Mirages that are left is another 20 years. If I throw them away I have wasted 20 years of that residual life. But upgrading them, with the infrastructure already available, seems a better option, considering the life time cost," he added.

Talking about the Air Force's long-term perspective planning, Naik said, "Wherever there is residual useful life left, in any system not only aircraft, we try and upgrade. So that at least part of that residual life is used. But wherever there is no residual life left we try and replace."

He further said that when you upgrade an aircraft the cost is higher than 50% of the original cost.

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Its costly but worthy..

 

[Godless-Kafir]

Criminal waste, Criminal waste.

There are better choices and if you ask me there are two choices.

1) We are spending nearly 15billion dollars on MMRCA and Mirage, we could have bought 50% shares of the entire Dassult company for such a price and then moved certain assets to manufacture those aircrafts in India. We could raise couple of billion by selling 49% stake of HAL to an Indian company and buy more shares in Dassult and import the needed technology.

2) Strike a deal with France to exchange the latest version of Mirage-2000s they have in their fleet and pay what ever extra they ask.

What a bloody waste, no wonder soldiers get killed because they are this dumb and business men enjoy their life in style.

 

[Godless-Kafir]

Its costly but worthy..

Its worth a rats ass to upgrade a 30yr old aircraft for 43million dollars, this is insane. Read my above post for options.

 

[ace009]

Criminal waste, Criminal waste.

There are better choices and if you ask me there are two choices.

1) We are spending nearly 15billion dollars on MMRCA and Mirage, we could have bought 50% shares of the entire Dassult company for such a price and then moved certain assets to manufacture those aircrafts in India. We could raise couple of billion by selling 49% stake of HAL to an Indian company and buy more shares in Dassult and import the needed technology.

2) Strike a deal with France to exchange the latest version of Mirage-2000s they have in their fleet and pay what ever extra they ask.

What a bloody waste, no wonder soldiers get killed because they are this dumb and business men enjoy their life in style.

Like I said, someone got paid off in a major way ...

 

[agentperry]

its surely not a simple upgrade plan. many things are into it attached to it. its like officially giving some money to french company. i wont be surprised if we see some very good head away in indo-french projects.
but on the other side it could be a lot and some big corruption scam as all the other french projects are facing same huge cost inflation problem like scorpene subs.

 

[ace009]

I know Armand will not like this, but I feel the French have developed an overblown sense of working less for more money. The public demand it, the politicians support it and the bureaucrats love it. Hence the longer timeframe and the huge costs. And with India's overblown sense corruption, I think there were multi-million dollar payoffs involved, which means Dassault would want to get 10 times of that back.
In short, the Mirage 2000 upgrades (without Engine) should not cost $47 million a plane, but more like $15 -20 million a plane (remember, a fighters upgradation cost is ~50% of a new one of similar capabilities).

 

[Armand2REP]

I know Ace will not like this, but France is getting as much money as it can get for its products. It is called good business. If Indians do not like the price, blame GOI for paying it. It ain't a fault of France to get paid.

 

[ace009]

I know Armand - I will always blame GoI first. Still, I think I am losing my respect for the French. They seem as bad as the damn Indians!
Selling old stuff for too high prices ...

 

[p2prada]

I have no idea what some of you guys are basing your arguments on.

The F-15C upgrades happening in the US cost $80Million a piece, for near fifth gen technology. We are getting 4th gen tech for $43Million. This is how much 4th gen tech costs in the west, same for LCA. Once LCA Mk2 comes into production you will yourself see the difference once 4.5th gen tech is added to the aircraft.

 

[Armand2REP]

I know Armand - I will always blame GoI first. Still, I think I am losing my respect for the French. They seem as bad as the damn Indians!
Selling old stuff for too high prices ...

Then you must REALLY hate the Russians, not only do they do that but they renege on contracts and up the price.