How Akinci &MQ 9 fit into Indo Pak theatre?

[Muhammad Saftain Anjum]

The basic purpose of UAVs is to act as cheap yet Expendable assets
But these big items MQ 9 and Akinci basically defeat that basic purpose
of having UAVs
MQ 9 costs India 100Milliom USD and Akinci is also not a cheap asset.
Romania purchased simple TB2 drones with 16 Million USD per unit cost (support and weapons package included) now imagine how much Akinci will cost us! Clearly at least 30Million USD per Unit.
And Indo Pak theatre is becoming highly SAM &Fighter Jets contested
Akinci &MQ 9 have have zero chance of survival in this region.

US tried to Arm its MQ 9 with Sidewinder A2A Missiles to give some defence to MQ 9 against Fighter Jets but realized that this thing can't pull out even a 2-G manouver for self defence and abandoned the idea.

I am trying to figure out do these expensive birds really worth of our hard earned money?
This money would have been better spent on loitering munitions development & drone swarm technologies.
I believe our our military planners are really vulnerable to social media hype created around new weapons and go after them without comprehensive analysis of their use in our own environment.
Even TB2s were shot out of sky right at the start of war by Russia and it's loitering munitions who are better sustainable for long spanned war.

@SQ8
@PanzerKiel
@MastanKhan
And other knowledgeable members

Or Am I failing to correctly connect the dots?

 

[nahtanbob]

The MQ-9 for the Indian Navy are for wide area surveillance of the Indian Ocean. They are not expecting hostile air forces to engage them

 

[Muhammad Saftain Anjum]

The MQ-9 for the Indian Navy are for wide area surveillance of the Indian Ocean. They are not expecting hostile air forces to engage them

Indian Air Force and Army are also buying MQ 9s
20 for Army and Air force
10 for Indian navy

 

[nahtanbob]

Indian Air Force and Army are also buying MQ 9s
20 for Army and Air force
10 for Indian navy

I have no idea about the use cases for the Indian Army and Indian Air Force

 

[ziaulislam]

The basic purpose of UAVs is to act as cheap yet Expendable assets
But these big items MQ 9 and Akinci basically defeat that basic purpose
of having UAVs
MQ 9 costs India 100Milliom USD and Akinci is also not a cheap asset.
Romania purchased simple TB2 drones with 16 Million USD per unit cost (support and weapons package included) now imagine how much Akinci will cost us! Clearly at least 30Million USD per Unit.
And Indo Pak theatre is becoming highly SAM &Fighter Jets contested
Akinci &MQ 9 have have zero chance of survival in this region.

US tried to Arm its MQ 9 with Sidewinder A2A Missiles to give some defence to MQ 9 against Fighter Jets but realized that this thing can't pull out even a 2-G manouver for self defence and abandoned the idea.

I am trying to figure out do these expensive birds really worth of our hard earned money?
This money would have been better spent on loitering munitions development & drone swarm technologies.
I believe our our military planners are really vulnerable to social media hype created around new weapons and go after them without comprehensive analysis of their use in our own environment.
Even TB2s were shot out of sky right at the start of war by Russia and it's loitering munitions who are better sustainable for long spanned war.

@SQ8
@PanzerKiel
@MastanKhan
And other knowledgeable members

Or Am I failing to correctly connect the dots?

Surveillance nothing else
Antiship role can be interesting

Or in Pakistan senrio bombing it's civilians/terrorists may be

 

[Muhammad Saftain Anjum]

Surveillance nothing else
Antiship role can be interesting

Or in Pakistan senrio bombing it's civilians/terrorists may be

Sir for surveillance,you will need to put them at front line and these things are not capable of sustaining themselves on front lines
So we are still there.
Do they really worth of our Dollars?

Or in Pakistan senrio bombing it's civilians/terrorists may be

I know it's really painful to see these wrong doings of Jernails but for now lets focus on capability aspects of these UAVs.

 

[Raj-Hindustani]

The basic purpose of UAVs is to act as cheap yet Expendable assets
But these big items MQ 9 and Akinci basically defeat that basic purpose
of having UAVs
MQ 9 costs India 100Milliom USD and Akinci is also not a cheap asset.
Romania purchased simple TB2 drones with 16 Million USD per unit cost (support and weapons package included) now imagine how much Akinci will cost us! Clearly at least 30Million USD per Unit.
And Indo Pak theatre is becoming highly SAM &Fighter Jets contested
Akinci &MQ 9 have have zero chance of survival in this region.

US tried to Arm its MQ 9 with Sidewinder A2A Missiles to give some defence to MQ 9 against Fighter Jets but realized that this thing can't pull out even a 2-G manouver for self defence and abandoned the idea.

I am trying to figure out do these expensive birds really worth of our hard earned money?
This money would have been better spent on loitering munitions development & drone swarm technologies.
I believe our our military planners are really vulnerable to social media hype created around new weapons and go after them without comprehensive analysis of their use in our own environment.
Even TB2s were shot out of sky right at the start of war by Russia and it's loitering munitions who are better sustainable for long spanned war.

@SQ8
@PanzerKiel
@MastanKhan
And other knowledgeable members

Or Am I failing to correctly connect the dots?

100 millon is not solely for drone costs. Numerous support systems are coming.

India is purchasing armed mq-9b drones because they have several advance features and self-defense capabilities not found in other drones, putting them one step ahead of their competitors in terms of technology.

In any case, the key reason for having this in Indian inventory is to keep an eye on the Indian Ocean to counter the Chinese Navy. Every penny spent on it is worthwhile because it has a flight endurance of over 40 hours and 7 hard points. No combat plane in the world can compare to the purposes of drones during surveillance activity with the teeth...

 

[Muhammad Saftain Anjum]

The first 100 millon is not solely for drone costs. Numerous support systems are coming.

India is purchasing armed mq-9b drones because they have several features and self-defense capabilities not found in other drones, putting them one step ahead of their competitors in terms of technology.

In any case, the key reason for having this in Indian inventory is to keep an eye on the Indian Ocean to counter the Chinese Navy. Every penny spent on it is worthwhile because it has a flight endurance of over 40 hours and 7 hard points. No combat plane in the world can compare to the purposes of drones during surveillance activity with the teeth...

MQ 9 Sea Guardians are best for ocean region
But what about in land border region
MQ 9s were helpless against fighter jets in Iraq
US tried to arm them with Sidewinder A2A Missiles but realized that this thing can't pull out even a 2-G manouver for self defence and the idea was abandoned
MQ 9s do not have MAWS coverage to alert the drone and its ground crew about coming danger.
It's a sitting duck against SAMs and fighter jets

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

Akinjis come with AESA radar, EW suits, WVR/BVR missiles, different types of cruise missiles, etc. The PAF has made the right choice....

The world has already seen what beasts TB2s are against all sorts of the Russian AD inside Syria, Libya and Karabagh under the coverage of the on-board and ground based EW systems like KORAL. In Ukraine, the KORAL type EW isn't present for the obvious reasons. Yet, the Ukrainians have made patriotic songs for Bayraktar for a reason....

In the Indo-Pak scenario, 02-26 & 02-27 have shown the PAF is more than enough to fend off the IAF, so the drones will have their own areas of ops....

500 TB2s have been sold so far to 30 countries making it the highest produced UAVs in its category...

 

[migflug]

Of the 31 drones to be procured, 15 would go to the Navy and 8 each to the Army and IAF. Most of the time, these drones will primarily be used for surveillances, but it can also perform anti-ship role for Nave(which is a huge force-multiplier) and land based attacks on non-state actors(for Army and Airforce). Also the cost is not $100 million a piece, but it comes with all the bells and whistles that is needed for it to perform(training, weapons etc.). Although I don't its use in the Army and AF, but our forces have weakness for shiny weapons, so they will get it too!!

 

[Raj-Hindustani]

MQ 9 Sea Guardians are best for ocean region
But what about in land border region
MQ 9s were helpless against fighter jets in Iraq
US tried to arm them with Sidewinder A2A Missiles but realized that this thing can't pull out even a 2-G manouver for self defence and the idea was abandoned
MQ 9s do not have MAWS coverage to alert the drone and its ground crew about coming danger.
It's a sitting duck against SAMs and fighter jets

Half of the maritime surveillance portion of the inventory will be used. Additionally, these have a SeaGuardian mission kit for self-defense.

16 Sky Guardian drones and 15 MQ9B Sea Guardian drones

Before you argue they are meaningless once you speak landbase, consider this. Pakistan is afterwards buying the drone? Using drones for a certain purpose is advantageous depending on the deployment and technique.

If not, they are readily available targets for SAMs and fighter planes, regardless of whether the drone is an Indian or Pakistani.

 

[Muhammad Saftain Anjum]

In Ukraine, the KORAL type EW isn't present for the obvious reasons. Yet, the Ukrainians have made patriotic songs for Bayraktar for a reason....

You know TB2s have completely disappeared from Russio-Ukraine theatre and its b/c they are expensive for countries to constantly resupply them.
PAF has made very poor choice to go for TB2 and Akinci

Imagine having an asset with AESA radar,EW and what not and that moves at only 0.2Mach ; it's a sitting duck and waste of resources.


So I will say again They are useful only in less contested air space & have zero chance of survival in Indo Pak theatre.

 

[Dalit]

You know TB2s have completely disappeared from Russio-Ukraine theatre and its b/c they are expensive for countries to constantly resupply them.
PAF has made very poor choice to go for TB2 and Akinci

Imagine having an asset with AESA radar,EW and what not and that moves at only 0.2Mach ; it's a sitting duck and waste of resources.


So I will say again They are useful only in less contested air space & have zero chance of survival in Indo Pak theatre.
View attachment 939623

LOL as if Pakistan has any option. You should count yourself lucky that Turkey and China are supplying some hardware.

Your generals like to polish American boots. Your American ally has stopped selling all military hardware to Pakistan. On the contrary, India receives all the goodies which will be used against Pakistan. These US supplied drones for India are also going to be utilized against Pakistan.

 

[Muhammad Saftain Anjum]

LOL as if Pakistan has any option. You should count yourself lucky that Turkey and China are supplying some hardware.

We better use Shahpar 2 B2

It's cheap to resupply and is expendable
Dollars spent on TB 2 and Akinci should have gone towards development of Loitering munitions and solar powered Pseudosatelites

 

[Dalit]

We better use Shahpar 2 B2

LOL oh man. Pakistani drones are useless. Pakistan wouldn't be buying Turkish drones if it could produce decent drones.