From
BROADSWORD:
It appears that on either Tuesday 1st/or 8th of this month that
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh accepted the first RAFALE fighter in
Merignac, France. From
Para 5 of below ref.
From
Para 6 of the ref...
" Yet, despite Singh’s symbolic “acceptance” of the first Rafale fighter in Merignac, the
IAF is still years away from fielding Rafales with the full capability New Delhi has paid for." This refers to the
RAFALE ISE (India Specific Enhancements.)
From
Para 7 of the ref...
"
On Friday, the IAF boss, Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Bhadauria, revealed that
the first IAF Rafales, a batch of four aircraft, would only reach India next May. That means an
eight-month delay from the contracted delivery date of September 2019 – or three years after the contract was signed."
That should be of no surprise here from anyone who's followed my work here with
INDIA over the years.
About the
first RAFALE's to be delivered from
Para 8 of the ref...
"Further, these Rafales, and tens more that will follow them,
will not have the enhanced capabilities – termed “India Specific Enhancements” (ISEs) – the IAF has demanded and paid Euro 1.7 billion for.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report of February 2019 reveals that,
until December 2021, the IAF will receive
less potent Rafales, built to the
lower capability specifications of the French Air Force."
Again this should be of no surprise and I've brought this up many times that in this case, France is not going to sell to anyone military equipment that's at the current or developmental level of what their military is using. And I really hope I don't have to list
ALL the reasons why this is so except to say for
National Security reasons and everything associated with it.
Of the
RAFALE ISE from
Para 9 of the ref...
"According to the CAG report, the IAF
will receive its first Rafale with ISEs installed only in
December 2021 – 63 months after the contract signature. Then, over the
subsequent eight months, i.e. till August 2022, Dassault (and its French avionics partner, Thales)
will install and retrofit ISE capabilities on all 36 Rafale fighters contracted by the IAF."
Back to the
first batch of four to arrive in May 2020 from
Para 10 & 11 of the ref.
"The IAF chief has downplayed the
eight-month delay in delivering the first Rafales by arguing that
IAF pilots would get more time to train in France."
"On Friday he stated: “The aircraft
will come at the end of May next year in Indian skies. The advantage is that our pilots will be substantially trained by then. That group of pilots will be
near ‘operational’ to take on any task after landing here.”
I don't know how to can become "
near operational" to fly as a sophisticated aircraft as the
RAFALE. These Paras will be a key in my recommendations in the "Bottom-line" below.
BOTTOM-LINE:
1) Concerning the
pre ISE versions I'm taking into account the above
Paras 10 & 11 for the
IAF Chief to admit this is well...not smart. But as you can also see throughout this article there have been significant delays (Remember it
only took India
30 years to develop the
ARJUN MBT.) and by time the "
ISE" versions get fully converted
as of right now, that'll put the contract
71/72 months behind schedule upon receiving the last
ISE version.
A)
IAF RAFALE START OCT. 2020. Finding Frances most advanced RAFALE in the OOB at a
minimum there will be an
EW and
MAYBE (Because I believe India either ordered or developed Targeting Pods for each of these Fighters.) reduction in
TI/GSR if they don't have TPods.
Also I besides any
possible delivery delays (
And how many times have we seen that happen out here!?!), I think we want those Pilots to have the extra training time so they don't crash those brand new jets!?!
2) The
IAF RAFALE ISE I see a
START date of
MAY 2022 I'm simply splitting the difference here on the dates given in
Para 9 of the ref. to reflect my thinking as follows...
A) If on track this will give the IAF
18 of the 36 RAFALE ISE conversion aircraft at that time.
B) Even with a
delay of a handful of months, they should still have
enough to justify us having them in the OOB.
C) These will at least be on par to the
current French RAFALE's and possibly slightly better (
Israel always had a knack for this with our jets we sold them.). Also it should be pointed and as posted in this thread, the reason INDIA dropped out of the partnership w/RUSSIA on the
PAK/FA (India)/T-50 (Russia) was because of cost cutting India felt the jet had reduced capabilities that would prevent this jet from being a "
true" 5TH gen Fighter. India fought hard to improve the jet and Russia refused to "take aboard" their recommendations. The
T-50 if ever fielded, is as India predicted,
not a 5th GEN Fighter.
So India does have the capability to improve the ISE version and the French are very happy to be doing that work!!
https://ajaishukla.blogspot.com/2019...ndia-gets.html
I had this done yesterday morning before getting ready for work. I copied the ref. but forgot to paste the already copied post I wrote when I realized I ran out of typing time!?!
Anyway time to copy/repost and you all have a good night/morning etc.!!
Regards,
Pat
