TimeTraveller
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How did Indian Air force ended up testing aircrafts from 15 tons to 30
tons for MMRCA competition? Was the question I ended up asking an Air
force official on the side lines of Aero India 2011, well the Answer was
much more complex and confusing to even remember, but it did highlighted
Confuse state of mind when IAF issued Request for Proposal (RFP) to
vendors for MMRCA Competition, from single engine Legacy fighter
aircraft like F-16 to next generation 4 ++ Rafale and Eurofighter all
were in the race. IAF wasted time in carrying out Technical and
performance evaluation, rather than simply carryout assessment of its
own requirement based on its operational needs.
Now What started out has single vendor deal for Purchase of French built
Mirage-2000-5, turned into a never ending MMRCA saga and How IAF instead
of taking a firm stand was more confused than ever has the drama
unfolded . Air force knew from the start which aircrafts had
disadvantages and will not make the cut but still went through pain
staking Process of evaluation, thousands of pages of vendor proposals,
Technical evaluation, which delayed the whole process by few years.
15 years of MMRCA Saga has clearly taken a toll on Combat strength of
IAF, while we still talk about possible two front wars with china and
Pakistan, IAF will need around 50 Combat Squadrons to deal with both of
them at two fronts, which is unlikely to happen even post 2035 .Leaving
serious question marks on our long term vision for our air force. IAF
which has sanctioned strength of 42 Combat Squadrons, is down to 38
Squadrons now and with upgrades been carried out to Mig-29 and
Mirage-2000 fleet, in hand Combat Squadrons is much lower. Post 2015 IAF
will be retiring 5 Squadrons of Mig-27 and another 5 Squadrons of older
Mig-21 and also will start phasing out 6 Squadrons of upgraded Mig-21
Bison post 2019 till 2025, which means IAF even with Induction of
Rafale, FGFA, and Tejas MK-1 and Tejas MK-2 in time without delays will
see continuous downfall in Squadron strength and will only reach current
strength of 38 Squadron only in 2032.
Our leaders might lack long term vision but our Air force officials are
also acting like spoiled Brats who have little concerned about Taxpayers
money. IAF is transforming into Top Heavy Air force, with large
induction of Twin engine Heavy class aircrafts, IAF is seriously lacking
perfect combination of Low-Medium-Heavy class of fighters in its fleet,
Legacy Light fighter aircrafts which are been retired are getting
replaced by Heavy class of aircrafts and only Light class aircraft
planned for Induction are Home Grown LCA Tejas Variants. Lack of balance
in its combat fleet is already leading to higher fuel cost, maintenance
cost, higher man hours required to prepare each aircraft per flight even
though number of hours of aircraft flying has not gone up.
Source : MMRCA: Self Goal by IAF? | idrw.org