So in other words, the Vikrant wasn't designed with other potential fighters in mind? Only Mig-29K or anything similar? What's the plan for IAC-2/3? If that is the case, then Dassault and Boeing are wasting their time pitching their respective platforms to the IN?
IAC 2 or 3 aren't coming for at least 10-12 years .... During that time Vikrant and Vikramaditya will be 2 carriers and they obviously were made with Mig 29s in mind
There's not much alternative either because when they were designing Vikrant (or refuribing Viky ) the Americans,British and French planned carriers were all 65k ton + and had catapults or emals , The only ski jump carriers were with India ,Russia and China ll of them who use Su/Mig derivatives
I wasn't referring to sub-systems or avionics. If you look at the acquisition rationale of the IAF and IN, you can find synergies and potential to reduce logistic and supply chain complexity, and therefore costs. For example, the MRCA/Rafale/IN/LCA MKII requirement could have been consolidated into a single platform, the TEDBF, which is essentially a twin engine LCA MKII with a semi-stealth front section. If Meteor was a priority, along with AESA and other avionics, these could have been acquired from France and integrated on TEDBF.
You're comparing a new carrier program with the first indigenious fighter and a 15 yr old acquisition program , Their timelines and demands are all different
Rafale came from the older MMRCA program , A time when neither Vikrant nor Vikramditya was commissioned and was mainly meant to replace the 60 odd Mirage 2000's in IAF .
LCA was a light fighter program meant to replace Mig 21s and the expectation for a long time was that LCA Mk2 would be a slightly upgraded version with no airframe changes but its only in the last couple of years that both IAF and HAL inspired by improvements they saw in MK1A agreed to pivot for a more advanced medium weight fighter instead of a incremental upgrade like Mk1->Mk1A
MRCA is non-starter , Its not going anywhere and everyone involved with IAF knows that , They're just pressuring them to ensure 2-3 more squadrons of Rafales are ordered by the MOD , The import lobby is strong and there will always be certain members arguing for American jets but its simply not gonna happen no matter how many shiny brochures Lockheed or Boeing sent out or how many "articles " are published ,
Fine, but given the fiasco with LCA, do you really think those timelines for MWF/TEDBF are realistic? If the IAF/IN were at all confident with HAL/ADA, they wouldn't have acquired the Rafale or STILL be considering F-21, F-18, F-15, Rafale-M and every other fighter under the sun.
MWF timeline is very realistic , The design is final ,wind tunnel and other testing is going on and the first flight is expected by end of this year-start of next .TEDBF obviously will take longer and will depend on how much support IN gives it , Its still in early stages and the first flight isn't expected for 5 years
Silver bullet?! I thought that was meant to be the Su-30MKI/Super-30?
Absolutely not ... Su-30 is the heavy air superiority backbone of IAF , You don't order 272 silver bullets , Its doctrine is similar to how USAF uses the F-15 .
Rafale on the other hand came because the IAF liked Mirage2000 so much and wanted more of it , IAF exclusively preferred Mirage2000 on ops like surgical strikes ,Kargil etc and whenever they want laser guided precision bombs , Its gonna succeed Mirage on ops like these and especially more so in the eastern theatre
I don't think the upgraded M2K and the Mig-29 are going anywhere soon. As you say, these have only recently been upgraded at high cost, and to retire them in less than a decade is unlikely, not least because of the optimistic timeline of the MWF. I'm fairly sure the M2K and Mig-29 will still be flying well past 2030.
I don't know what timeline your going by but even by IAF/HAL timelines MWF won't replace them before 2029-2030 ..Don't get confused between timelines for first flight and the timeline for ordering and commissioning of actual squadrons
MWF is expected to first fly in 21-22 then go through a couple of years of testing then be ordered , and going by the industry standard of 3 years before delivery you're looking at 2027-28 by the time the first squadron gets commissioned and considering the Jaguars are older and will get replaced first it is likely that upgraded Mig29s and Mirages stick around till 2030 after which they'll get replaced by MWF
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