IAF chief contradicts CDS Rawat, says plan is to buy 114 foreign fighters besides LCA Tejas | World Defense

IAF chief contradicts CDS Rawat, says plan is to buy 114 foreign fighters besides LCA Tejas

Scorpio

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IAF chief contradicts CDS Rawat, says plan is to buy 114 foreign fighters besides LCA Tejas
A few days ago Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat who is technically superior/senior of IAF CAS Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria said in a press conference that Indian Air Force won't procure off shelf Fighter Jets instead it will go for it's HAL Tejas (Technically "Tejas" is just Assembled by HAL after 37 years & its still not yet operational) but today IAF ACM Bhadauria completely contradicted what CDS General Bipin Said earlier.

Air Chief Marshal R.K.S. Bhadauria, head of the Indian Air Force | Photo: ANI
Air Chief Marshal R.K.S. Bhadauria, head of the Indian Air Force

New Delhi: Four days after Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Bipin Rawat said the Indian Air Force was planning to switch over to the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) ‘Tejas’ rather than pursue a global tender for 114 new fighter jets, Air Chief Marshal R.K.S. Bhadauria has contradicted him.
Bhadauria said Monday that the list of aircraft planned to be inducted by the IAF includes 36 Rafales, 114 multirole fighter aircraft, 100 advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) and over 200 LCAs in different variants.
Rawat had told news agency Bloomberg last week that the IAF “is switching to the LCA” when asked about the global tender for jets.

“The IAF is saying, I would rather take the indigenous fighter, it is good,” he was quoted as saying.
The CDS’ words came as a setback for the likes of Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Saab, who were in the race for the contract for 114 aircraft, which would be worth at least 15 billion dollars and would also entail technology transfer under ‘Make in India’.

However, IAF chief Bhadauria told news agency ANI Monday: “This project (114 jets) is in the middle-weight and is in the Rafale class, in this issue, we will deal with it in the Make in India region, with an increase in FDI, with support to the private sector. I think in future this will bring in technology which is required to support the aviation sector. I think it is important to have another generation of aircraft in terms of capability, technology as we go along (sic).”

Separate programmes
When the CDS had made his comments last week, they had come as a surprise to the Air Force and industry. Sources had explained to ThePrint that the 114 jets cannot be replaced by the 83 LCA as the two fighters are of different classes.

“The IAF projections take into account the 83 LCA Mk 1A, Rafale, the 114 foreign fighters under Make in India, and even the AMCA,” a source had said.
Another source, who was involved in the negotiations for 83 LCAs, said it was wrong to mix up two separate programmes.
Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria also said his force is planning to acquire 450 fighter aircraft for deployment on the northern and western frontiers of the country over the next 35 years.
Regardless, the IAF will not reach its sanctioned strength of 42 squadrons by 2042, its projections have revealed.
The best-case scenario is if the force inducts the Tejas Mark 2, the AMCA and 114 fighter aircraft, for which a request for proposal is still awaited.

 
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Cookie Monster

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@Khafee. Is this U turn or internal war of indian for kickbacks
Personally I think Pimpin accidentally spilled the beans...they are gonna go for LCA for now while any procurement of foreign jets is gonna be on hold due to economic issues. However I don't think they wanted those foreign companies to know that...and wanted to continue dangling that carrot that they have been for a decade or so. This CAS Aloo is trying to do damage control to keep the companies interested and lined up for the supposed billions.

In the long run though...once they do have money...their bureaucrats and politicians(plus higher ups in the armed forces) along with business tycoons(who have connections with the political leadership) will waste no chance in acquiring foreign jets. It would be a chance for them to get their massive kickbacks...and there is no way Tejas can cover the IAF projected number of fighters required.
 

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Drama continues as predictions by forbes is "Maybe India Will Get Its Super F-16, After All"

uncaptioned


Hang on—maybe the Indian Air Force will buy the F-21, a sort of “super F-16” from U.S. plane-maker Lockheed LMT Martin.

India’s chief of the defense staff Bipin Rawat said in a May 15 interview that the air force would cancel its tender for 144 foreign-made jet fighters and instead order 83 additional Indian-made Tejas Light Combat Aircraft on top of the 40 LCAs the service already has paid for.
“The Indian Air Force is switching that to the LCA,” Rawat said.

Rawat’s announcement seemed to be the death-knell for the F-21, a greatly-upgraded F-16 variant that Lockheed is developing specifically for the Indian tender.
But hold on! Air Chief Marshal R.K.S. Bhadauria, the head of the Indian Air Force, on May 18 contradicted Rawat. Bhadauria clarified that the Indian Air Force wants both the 114 foreign planes and the additional LCAs.
The lightweight Tejas with its single engine and four-ton payload is in a different class than are the medium-weight fighters—some of them with two engines—that the air force hopes to acquire under the 144-plane tender.

For the record, Bhadauria explained that the air force’s current fighter-acquisition programs include the foreign tender, a long-term requirement for 100 “advanced medium combat aircraft” plus separate purchases of 36 Rafales from France as well as up to 200 LCAs in several variants.
The 114-plane program could cost $15 billion. The new, 83-plane LCA purchase, which comes on top of a previous order for 40 of the type, could set back New Delhi around $6 billion.
uncaptioned


The F-21, Boeing BA BA's F/A-18E/F, the Rafale, the European Typhoon, the Swedish Gripen E and the Russian MiG-35 and Su-35 all are contenders for the 114-fighter program. Indian companies would assemble the new jets on license.
The F-21 arguably is the most sophisticated of the candidates. Compared to older F-16s, the design boasts new cockpit displays, conformal fuel tanks, a large airframe spine that can accommodate communication systems or radar-jammers, fittings for towed radar decoys, a new infrared sensor and a refueling probe for use with India's Russian-made aerial tankers.

The super-F-16 also includes technology from Lockheed’s F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters. "The F-21 has common components and learning from Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation F-22 and F-35 and will share a common supply chain on a variety of components," Lockheed stated on its website on the morning of Feb. 20, 2019.
A few hours later, that claim disappeared from the site. In any event, the F-21 would have been the most advanced version yet of the single-engine F-16, which flew for the first time in 1974.
The Indian air force in 2020 maintains just 28 fighter squadrons against a requirement for 42 squadrons. The current force includes European-designed Jaguars, French Mirage 2000s and Rafales, Russian MiG-29s and Su-30s and the Tejas.
The service hopes to stand up three new units in 2020 as additional Rafales, Su-30s and LCAs arrive.

 

Zeeman

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First of all Forbes is very anti Pakistani. I have read their coverage for many years and they always portray very negative picture of Pakistan. They always present Indian perspective as the truth.


One must be missing a part of their brain to trust and believe in Indian plans . Superior is saying that we have no plans to buy foreign planes but the lower rank is contradicting his boss. And yet Forbes is taking junior persons view to conclude deal may still be possible.

Reminds me of Indian cricket team deliberate loss to England in the last World Cup. Just so that Pakistan doesn’t make it to semi final they threw their game away.

Dhoni was in Kashmir recently and he faced crowd chanting Boom Boom Afridi.... ultimate insult.
 

Scorpio

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First of all Forbes is very anti Pakistani. I have read their coverage for many years and they always portray very negative picture of Pakistan. They always present Indian perspective as the truth.


One must be missing a part of their brain to trust and believe in Indian plans . Superior is saying that we have no plans to buy foreign planes but the lower rank is contradicting his boss. And yet Forbes is taking junior persons view to conclude deal may still be possible.

Reminds me of Indian cricket team deliberate loss to England in the last World Cup. Just so that Pakistan doesn’t make it to semi final they threw their game away.

Dhoni was in Kashmir recently and he faced crowd chanting Boom Boom Afridi.... ultimate insult.
Make sence, but interesting things that contradiction can be seen between to main men involved in there defense, apparently we can sit and enjoy there statement and wait whats next os coming in statement

My question is that the condradiction between 2 tops is Actual or its drama for world ?
 

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First of all Forbes is very anti Pakistani. I have read their coverage for many years and they always portray very negative picture of Pakistan. They always present Indian perspective as the truth.


One must be missing a part of their brain to trust and believe in Indian plans . Superior is saying that we have no plans to buy foreign planes but the lower rank is contradicting his boss. And yet Forbes is taking junior persons view to conclude deal may still be possible.

Reminds me of Indian cricket team deliberate loss to England in the last World Cup. Just so that Pakistan doesn’t make it to semi final they threw their game away.

Dhoni was in Kashmir recently and he faced crowd chanting Boom Boom Afridi.... ultimate insult.
Any mega deal in $bn's will spell doom for GoI, with rising unemployment, they need to be careful, hence why this is on the back burner, and small fish.

Simply put, if anyone on the front line started using fire finder radars for grenades, instead of mortars / arty shells, forget loosing his job, he would definitely loose more!
 

Zeeman

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I think Indian airforce is the one creating all the drama ... they just want to block any party from making deal with us in hopes of getting a bigger contract.... just like their cricket team !
 

BATMAN

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Once there was a quite much progress with LM and Indian establishment, but seems Rafael is better connected with Indian establishment.
Now since Rafael deal is through, i doubt InAF will pursue F-16, there are no sane reasons in doing so.
 

Scorpio

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Once there was a quite much progress with LM and Indian establishment, but seems Rafael is better connected with Indian establishment.
Now since Rafael deal is through, i doubt InAF will pursue F-16, there are no sane reasons in doing so.
Indian are very happy and confident with franch aircraft from long, additionally also franch know how to give good kickbacks
But one thing iscsure Indian are now not much interested in Russia aircraft any more due to poor support and maintenance issues
 

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Indian are very happy and confident with franch aircraft from long, additionally also franch know how to give good kickbacks
But one thing iscsure Indian are now not much interested in Russia aircraft any more due to poor support and maintenance issues
The Indian Su-30 has poor reliability rate because of this:

The aircraft is tailor-made for Indian specifications and integrates Indian systems and avionics as well as French and Israeli sub-systems
 

Mingle

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Once there was a quite much progress with LM and Indian establishment, but seems Rafael is better connected with Indian establishment.
Now since Rafael deal is through, i doubt InAF will pursue F-16, there are no sane reasons in doing so.
They will procure more Rafale if they need once infrastructure is placed the next lot of Rafale will alot cheaper and its a good plane. I doubt they will buy F16s for many reasons plus this forbs article seems planted story.
 
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