Indian Air Force wants to urgently buy 21 MiG-29 fighters

[rockstarIN]

Mig 29! Great purchase in 1980s and 1990s.

kept as reserve with maintenance. Old airframe but will get the same upgraded to SMT/UPG standard before hand over.

 

[Knight Rider]

PAF should Get 27 new F-16s from any country which are retiring or get at least 2 brand new squadrons of new fighter and get them fast. We need to retire these 40 years old mirages and F-7s fleet immediately and get some thing potent. F-7 squadrons are becoming useless day by day due to them being Mig-21 copies. The Modern battlefield has no place for Mig-21 type fighters, they will get brutally murdered in the sky and we have the example of 27 Feb to back it up.

 

[CrazyZ]

Early versions of the Mig 29 were flawed. Indian procurement process is very bureaucratic. Let's see what comes of this. Reinforces my view that the Su30mki platform is not the best for front line skirmishs. Iaf has woken up to this as well.

 

[Keysersoze]

Yes but they cant be

because you fcuked up the Tejas programme

Indians get so worked up about tge Technical aspects of Tejas and then go off on a tangent

They forget
The cost
The availability
The need

So when in February india needed the Tejas where was it?
All they had was old Mig 21s


The Jf17s have been flying for over a decade snd when the time came they were FRONT AND CENTER

Tejas screwed the indians

Very crudely stated but true. There are Heroes on these forums who go on about how the TEJAS will be doing this that and the other, but in the cold light of day it didn't do what it was there to do. I.e. be a cheap home built replacement for the MIG21. Meanwhile The mess of the MRCA deal and various other upgrade programs floundering (Jaguar upgrade) hasn't helped either.

Underestimating the enemy, thereby thinking that upgraded vintage aircrafts can act as frontline assets is the reason.
Although Mig 21 Bis is quite capable interceptor aircraft that can down even better aircrafts, but it has very short range and hence needs to be replaced ASAP.

Yeah it hasn't downed anything yet, and it has many flaws that relegate it to a secondary point defence aircraft. The reality is that it is only still flying because programs to replace it have floundered badly.

 

[deckingraj]

Yes but they cant be

because you fcuked up the Tejas programme

Indians get so worked up about tge Technical aspects of Tejas and then go off on a tangent

They forget
The cost
The availability
The need

So when in February india needed the Tejas where was it?
All they had was old Mig 21s


The Jf17s have been flying for over a decade snd when the time came they were FRONT AND CENTER

Tejas screwed the indians

I disagree....I mean look at the timelines...post kargil IAF requested for additional mirages...GOI rightly said, why old machines, lets go for new ones...its been 2 decades, those new machines are yet to come...so think about it...is it Tejas or GOI who has screwed our squadron strength? By this timeline, we were expected to have atleast 4-5 squadrons of Rafael's...abd what we have got...nada!!

 

[Kaniska]

Corruption is at the peak level in all services of military...That is why, you see so many accidental deaths in different areas....

 

[hussain0216]

I disagree....I mean look at the timelines...post kargil IAF requested for additional mirages...GOI rightly said, why old machines, lets go for new ones...its been 2 decades, those new machines are yet to come...so think about it...is it Tejas or GOI who has screwed our squadron strength? By this timeline, we were expected to have atleast 4-5 squadrons of Rafael's...abd what we have got...nada!!

Sure but mig 21s arent supposed to be replaced by Rapaels

The whole point of the Tejas and JF17 programmes is a light, multi role massed produced fighter to form a qualitative indigenous back bone fighter for the airforces to replace the legacy fighters

Now without entering a penis measuring contest because the "tech" stats are almost inconsequential because the JF 17 has now been doing its job for over a decade and has seen actual service
And when it was required it came to bat


Whilst india is forced to not only fly legacy fighters but look for old platforms to upgrade becase the Tejas has took so long

 

[deckingraj]

Sure but mig 21s arent supposed to be replaced by Rapaels

The whole point of the Tejas and JF17 programmes is a light, multi role massed produced fighter to form a qualitative indigenous back bone fighter for the airforces to replace the legacy fighters

Now without entering a penis measuring contest because the "tech" stats are almost inconsequential because the JF 17 has now been doing its job for over a decade and has seen actual service
And when it was required it came to bat


Whilst india is forced to not only fly legacy fighters but look for old platforms to upgrade becase the Tejas has took so long

I thought the question was depleting squadron strength...but yes...delays in Tejas has hit IAF hard as well...however they have to take some blame for that...I mean had you offered them JF-17 block 1, they would have rejected it as well...i am not sure if they would have accepted anything less that JF-17 block 3...even PAF is waiting for it...however in then meantime PAF have tons and tons of experience with Jf-17...so yes Tejas is delayed and yes IAF was promised lot of things...however IAF is also responsible(partly) for the mess...

 

[Counter-Errorist]

This purchase is to mitigate the fast plummeting number of jets in IAF0

Fast plummeting indeed

 

[Ali_Baba]

I

Its wasn't a great purchase then

overrated fighter hasn't done anything but get shot down

Exactly!! Mig29 has not shot down any fighter ever.. check out its long history of being shot down everyone!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_shootdowns