This interesting piece over at Asian Skies, Flight Global’s blog on all things flight-related in Asia, highlights the difficulities the Indian Air Force is having in keeping its fleet of Soviet-built fighters, transports and tankers flying due to their aging parts.
It lists IAF RfPs (tenders) for everything from Migg-21 tires to An-32 lugs and wheel hubs for its IL-76 tankers and makes the point that the increasing difficulty in keeping these jets flying may be pushing India toward more purchases of Western aircraft.
All air forces (and vintage car owners, for that matter) face issues finding spares for older equipment. India, however, seems to be particularly challenged, with a diversity of aircraft types - many with overlapping capabilities — and a number of airframes that have served well beyond their intended service life, particularly the MiG-21s. A glance at the IAF’s tenders underlines its urgent need to obtain new types.
Remember, the IAF just eliminated the MiG-35 from moving ahead in the MMRCA contest in favor of the European built Typhoon and Rafale. All this makes me think back to yesterday’s post on the Free Libyan Air Force flying MiG-21s; I’ve got to say, it’s a testament to the rebels tenacity and tech skills to see them flying any fast jets at all.
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
One thing we know……
They ain't buying US fighter a/c anytime soon…..
They ARE getting C-17's….
But Congress probably wouldn't approve enough technology in any US fighter jet for it to actually get off the ground……
Migg? That's no simple typo– that shows the writer is a hack who knows nothing about military aviation. And when he quotes, the spelling is right.
Confusing it with a LaGG maybe? :)
Simple typo, please chill. The article was informing and did its job.
Hunter, your retardation continues. What do you think this is, a full fledged magazine? When you have your own site, that people actually come to and read, and get sosmething out of, then talk. Untill then, all you have is your worthless posts and your hand. If you keep this up, you will be ignored as a troll.
So, what happened to them looking at our stuff? Maybe not F35, but certainly F15 or whatever…
i dont see the big deal on this, why not just manufacture the parts? If they designed a fighter them selves, they would have to anyway. Mig-21s arent being produced anymore but if keeping them is a priority, then make the parts.
It is a strange complaint. If there is a market for used jet parts- the 21 has to top the list.
Don't the Russians have a Monthan equivalent?
Its really a 3rd World model- have a flashy airforce with a bunch of Mach 2 fighters- but no spares or mechanics who can use them.
Ostheim is thinking, isn't there a business opportunity here for some aero firms in the west?
Maybe they'd like a few F-5's in the mean time? Maintainable, parts available, good record in use. Anyone at Grumman?
Alot of countries still have MiG-21 and will buy parts for them. Theres even countries who fly MiG-17s still. As for India they are not buying MiG-35 BUT they are buying MiG-29Ks for its new aircraft carrier.
I used to mock people with this kind of tech but, sometimes, something is better than nothing, unless you can afford better…
Yep. Most AK47 are inferior weapons with inferior ammo, but are cheap, tough, and arm a whole lot of people.
And in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Or, in the village of unarmed herders, the guy with the rusty AK-47 is king.
Just my two cents, but he exclusion of the MiG-35 isn't really weird, it's little more than a prototype while India is interested in an aircraft already under mass production since they need it asap (even though their "as soon as possible" is relative because of their heavy bureaucracy), also they already operate a consistent fleet of Su-30, depending completely on a single country isn't a good move for them.
And like jamesb said, they're not going to purchase American aircrafts, and not only because the Congress is formed by dicks, but also because U.S. likes to stop delivering spare parts and assistance exactly when it's needed: when there's a war.
Also U.S. don't give full access to their technology, the story of the F-35 source code is just one last example (and it involves historic allies like U.K., not emerging countries that had bad relations with the US until a decade ago).
India is going to buy lots of 4th generation planes, and even some 5th. US or Europe should take this market, even by selling at production cost, or credits with minimal interest rate. Russia don't have enough money for PAK FA, China is building it's own J-20 so only India left to finance Russian 5th generation aircraft. By taking India's market PAK FA is killed out of action, than US can go for Iran and China. Economic victory and lots of high paid jobs in years of crises.
"India is going to buy lots of 4th generation planes, and even some 5th. US or Europe should take this market, even by selling at production cost, or credits with minimal interest rate."
It seems that the Indian side don't care about logistical/price/training nightmare with maintaining sophisticated hardware improted from different countries and vendors. Good look for them.
"Russia don't have enough money for PAK FA"
Ohhh, really? That's newsflash. AFAIK, the existing program was subsidized with their own(Russian) money.
"By taking India's market PAK FA is killed out of action"
No.
PAK-FA is Russia's domestic 5th generation fighter jet program for RuAF inventory. Simply, it not depend on India.
FGFA is joint Russian-Indian fighter jet program which would be based on T-50/PAK-FA. But this is separate combat aircraft program anyway.
Don't forget that Russia has only few dozens of Su-30', Su-35' and other new planes, and price of stealth is even higher. Russians have problems with materials(composite, some crystal stuff) with new weapons for the program, so Indian money could help a lot, or lack of same can make things harder.
Also India is potential ally due to border conflict with China, it's enemy of Pakistan which is officially only(?) Muslim country with nukes (and obviously links with Al Qaeda) could be useful if Pakistani Taliban take over, or simply for pressure on their regime.
And economic situation in US demand increase of export, so why not to a India.
"it's enemy of Pakistan which is officially only(?) Muslim country with nukes (and obviously links with Al Qaeda) could be useful if Pakistani Taliban take over, or simply for pressure on their regime."
This was really funny, Nenad. So the US should arm an other country to counter a country that they've armed before? What would happen if India would become the next enemy of US interest? US should once again sell tecnhology and weapons to Pakistan and even China (there was unofficial collaboration back during Cold War after all). India has the potential to become more than a regional power, at that point the US could have a hard time making coincide their interests with India's ones.
The US should give up on the old "enemy of my enemy is my friend" strategy, they've made too many errors with similar "pragmatic" moves (Iran, Talibans, Pakistan, etc.).
Never stopped us from arming Iran to counter Russia which then armed Iraq and then arming Iraq to stop Iran, and then arming Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to check Iraq before invading Iraq and rearming them in the event of having to fight Iran again.
Confused?
And yes, arming people out of political expediency or money was not smart. However, arming locals and getting them to do your dirty business is often cheaper than sending in troops to die. Look at the return on investment the PRC got from supporting North Vietnam.
Think of where we'd be if we simply supported Uncle Ho in the '40s instead of the French. France pulled out of NATO anyways and France could never be strong in the Pacific, so…
Su-30 is export-oriented fighter jet. Hundreds of 30's were produced were produced and supplied. It never was intended as bird for Russian airforce.
Su-35BM is their brand new multirole combat aircraft for RuAF. It is in mass production since 2011.
Do the Russian have problems with composites? Really? I don't think so. PAK-FA/T-50's airframe uses ~75% percentage of advanced Russian-made composite materials in its parts. In the late 90's, Su-47 (experimental fighter jet and "flying labaratory" for PAK-FA) had wings made entirely with super strong composites!
New weapons for PAK-FA is under development. These new types are classified. I didn't see any reports about problems with their weapons.
As i said before, PAK-FA program became reality because it was funded with Russian money.
Actually Russia should buy up to 40 Su-30s: http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20110718/165261909…
Probably it's some kind of political move, Su-30s are produced by Irkut while Su-35s are produced by KnAAPO (it's just my supposition though, I don't really understand if the Su-30 has some advantages over Su-35 that could justify this move).
Yet another Indian MiG-21 crashed: http://alert5.com/2011/08/03/indian-air-force-mig…
India should seriously speed-up their decision between Rafael and Eurofighter, they're losing too many pilots in this way…
@blight: I'm not confused, it's actually quite funny, but serous problems could rise if Iraq and Iran would join arms, since they're both Shias, and once again US military equipments could end up in the hands of enemy countries (like the F-14s that Iran is still using). What's actually even worse is that Iran/Iraq together would seriously change the political balance of Middle East (they would have also Syria and Hezbollah/Lebanon as allies), Saudi Arabia and Israel would surely feel menaced in a similar scenario.
Anyway, for now the rearment of Iraq seems pretty limited.
The most desirable fighters in the world are those that have been adopted and flown by the U.S. military. Cheaper, and excellent, are several that lost out to the ones that were adopted by the U.S., one by a U.S. aviation company. These are excellent planes, why doesn’t India buy THOSE?
Another indian ariforce Mig plunges into the earth on Dec.2, 2011. Indian air force has created an invincible record of crashes, with a helicopter crash and a mig-29 crashing last month. Last month they also crossed crashing 1000 planes. It seems the biggest enemy of indian air force is its own pilots! How can they continue with more sophisticated planes on orders worth billions of dollars? Maybe they should start thinking to outsource their air defense.
Its not the Pilot's but the maintenance of the aircraft's that is the main reason behind so many crashes. After the fall of Soviet Union, India had to redo all the deals regarding the maintenance and parts supply even if it had the technology to manufacture it on its own as it didn't wish to spoil its relations, like China did by reverse engineering/ Stealing most old Soviet hardware. This redo of deals was/is marred by red tapes and the likes. Hence, there is increase in the number of crashes.