Go Bankrupt, Air Force Style

[SpArK]

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Go Bankrupt, Air Force Style





Just weeks from now, Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony will announce whether the Eurofighter or Dassault will win the $12 billion contract for the supply of 126 front-line fighters for the Indian Air Force.

Consistent delays by Russia in procurement, slipshod service and repeated cost escalations elbowed out the MiG-35,while US reluctance to give India anything other than the 20th century F-16, as well as crippling conditions on local production sharing of the more futuristic F-18, put paid to the hopes of the Obama administration that the Indian taxpayer would bailout Lockheed or boost Boeing. That left the Saab Gripen, which was eliminated by the Defense Ministry from consideration, reportedly on the grounds that it had a less than optimal radar capability.

This columnist favoured the Gripen, not only because it’s much cheaper than the two other European Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) under consideration, but because Saab would have been agreeable to the location within India of far more significant chunks of aircraft production than the Eurofighter consortium or Dassault, both of whom seem seek to confine production operations of higher technology items to Europe rather than partnering with India to lower overall costs. Unlike Germany and France, the Scandinavian countries are far more willing to enter into equal partnerships with Indian industry, and hence the acquisition of the Swedish aircraft would have boosted local capabilities far more than either of the two options now shortlisted.


Interestingly, while the choice of radar has been given as the reason why the lower cost Gripen was eliminated, the Eurofighter has the exact same radar system as the Swedish aircraft, made by the same manufacturer. Additionally, the lifecycle costs of the Eurofighter are believed to be nearly ten times that of the Saab option, while the costs of the Dassault option are reportedly eight times the cost of the Gripen, for every hour of flight. This will make operation of either of the two shortlisted variants prohibitively expensive for the Indian Air Force.

Purchasing white elephants has become the sport of choice for the Defense Ministry. The Indian Navy has bought the mothballed Admiral Gorshkov from Russia at a price that will cross the $3.2 billion mark, or three times the estimate given at the time the decision to purchase this aircraft carrier was made. Like the Eurofighter or the Dassault options, the Admiral Gorshkov (now re-christened Vikramaditya and awaiting induction sometime in 2012) will be hugely expensive to operate. Of course, as the just-concluded $2 billion deal for the ‘upgrade’ of the Mirage squadrons shows, the higher the cost, the more the hidden ‘sweeteners’ are likely to be.

While there have been news reports of the Italian relatives of a prominent political family in India showing an interest in the MMRCA acquisition, the Indian media has, as is its wont, not dared explore the possibility of any such connection. Instead, they have lapped up the Defense Ministry’s handouts, which tout the deal as giving ‘teeth’ to India’s air attack capability. That such teeth would be false teeth doesn’t seem to bother many. Thus far, the Defense Ministry has refused to budge from its policy of relying on foreign rather than Indian companies for big ticket items.

Antony has presided over the biggest spending binge ever entered into by the Defense Ministry. This legacy is the polar opposite of that of previous Defense Minister V.K. Krishna Menon, who during his tenure sought to deepen ‘self-reliance’ for defence items and technology. Given the financial hole that Europe is in, the murderous expense involved in purchasing, maintaining and operating the Eurofighter or the Dassault Rafaele may be put down to charity.


Go Bankrupt, Air Force Style | Indian Decade

[Archie]

Who wrote this Bullshit

If we were to Buy Saab Gripen , then we might as well go the whole hog and Buy the much more capable F/A18 Super Hornet

[elite]

Who wrote this Bullshit

If we were to Buy Saab Gripen , then we might as well go the whole hog and Buy the much more capable F/A18 Super Hornet

the reporter might have taken Grippen as the base which is more or less capable a fighter plane and has least operating cost.

I am well agree with that if you consider the whole amount of technology transfer they wish to give us.

But FA-18 is a good option and we will not get technology transfer.

[RaptorRX707]

Additionally, the lifecycle costs of the Eurofighter are believed to be nearly ten times that of the Saab option, while the costs of the Dassault option are reportedly eight times the cost of the Gripen, for every hour of flight. This will make operation of either of the two shortlisted variants prohibitively expensive for the Indian Air Force.

The Indian Navy has bought the mothballed Admiral Gorshkov from Russia at a price that will cross the $3.2 billion mark, or three times the estimate given at the time the decision to purchase this aircraft carrier was made. Like the Eurofighter or the Dassault options, the Admiral Gorshkov (now re-christened Vikramaditya and awaiting induction sometime in 2012) will be hugely expensive to operate. Of course, as the just-concluded $2 billion deal for the ‘upgrade’ of the Mirage squadrons shows, the higher the cost, the more the hidden ‘sweeteners’ are likely to be.

Given the financial hole that Europe is in, the murderous expense involved in purchasing, maintaining and operating the Eurofighter or the Dassault Rafaele may be put down to charity.

Do India have funds to support lifestyles costs in long-terms when there is no wars possible for India near future?

Indeed murderous expensive. This article didn't explain how much the cost for trainings and exercises regularly with either Eurofighter or Dassault counterparts.

[EastWest]

Do India have funds to support lifestyles costs in long-terms when there is no wars possible for India near future?

Indeed murderous expensive. This article didn't explain how much the cost for trainings and exercises regularly with either Eurofighter or Dassault counterparts.

I dont think there is no possibility of war in our region.
Sorry to say but Pakistan does not share a good track record of keeping its promise of peace(Remember 1999).

Infact every time India is complacent , we have faced terror attacks and threats of nuclear attacks on us...
So i would say India needs to buy weapons and aircrafts which are best for us and also wins the war in the shortest period of time

[Jon Snow]

Do India have funds to support lifestyles costs in long-terms when there is no wars possible for India near future?

Indeed murderous expensive. This article didn't explain how much the cost for trainings and exercises regularly with either Eurofighter or Dassault counterparts.

India is used to flying machines that have huge life cycle costs. Take the mig 29 - known to be one of the most maintenance expensive aircraft - or in fact any russian aircraft , all require extremely high flying costs.
one of the reasons for choosing a western engine for LCA (or a western aircraft for MRCA) is to reduce this cost. Trust me - the operational costs of these two might be high as compared to other western aircraft( also a debatable point as both were designed to have low operational costs) but the IAF will love them as they will require far less money than the Russian counterparts which the IAF is used to flying

[nomi007]

Saab gripen ng is good jet fighter
but ef-2000 and rafale are the best

[RaptorRX707]

I dont think there is no possibility of war in our region.
Sorry to say but Pakistan does not share a good track record of keeping its promise of peace(Remember 1999).

Infact every time India is complacent , we have faced terror attacks and threats of nuclear attacks on us...
So i would say India needs to buy weapons and aircrafts which are best for us and also wins the war in the shortest period of time

You are right, no countries keep a good promise of peace. Our countries rarely goes to full-scale wars again.

Is this MMRCA going to rescue India when you have alot of MKIs, upgrading Bisons, BrahMos, upgrading Navy, and so on. What does this to do with terror attack and threats of nuclear attacks? I don't see the basic reasons of new expensive jets to be inducted. If I am not wrong, Indian officials was not happy about double prices of Russia which India shared in last few years. It explained the second paragraph.

We see, India going second financial murderous expensive with new counterparts, technology, training after Russia. Saudi Arabia has variables European jets, US, soon to be Russian jets but hardly to understand in real-wars due to inexperiences, skills, and maintenances costly.

Saving cost effective is always priority anyway.

[Archie]

SAAB Gripen is only 60% Swedish
Rest is Italian , American , British , German

Even the Weapons Package for Gripen is totally American
Add to that , mmrca is required to replace 5 Mig27 sqds and 2 Jaguar sqds
But Gripen has a range of just 2000 Km , which is Woefully small for Deep Strike Missions , when u look at the fact that IAF Jaguar have range of 2500 Km , and Rafale has Range of 3700 Km

Also Gripen lacks the Variety of weapons which can be used with Rafale
if u look at the weapons package being requested by IAF for Rafale or Typhoon , well it include the following

1000 Brimstone/AASM Anti Armour Missiles
120 Scalp/StormShadow Standoff Cruise Missiles
72 Exocet AntiShip Missiles (This being available on Gripen)
800 Meteor BVRAAM
450-500 WWR Missiles or MICA
1200 LGB Kits Paveway III

[harpoon]

I thought SAAB Gripen was rejected as IAF was not in favor of single engine jets.

@Topic: I don't know about the credentials of this author but people with no knowledge of a particular field should not write about it. There are many 'ignorant' masses out there who would be confused by this type of articles.

[cyphercide]

Saab gripen ng is good jet fighter
but ef-2000 and rafale are the best

True and there's no getting around that point regardless of how much either the EFT or Rafales might cost off the shelf or to maintain.The thing that needs to be kept in mind is that the MMRCAs are going to be fielded by the IAF for a considerable period of time.It needs to ensure that the birds that they have chosen should be relevant enough to carry the IAF in the coming years.Can the Gripen ensure it's dominance in times to come? It's questionable to state the least.

When you are gong to break big cash on such deals anyway,why not splurge on the best options available?

[jha]

Hmmm...Another interesting way of thinking...

[Storm Force]

Eight times the cost of rafael and ten times the cost of TYPHOON.

One of the MAJOR paremters ie 600 points in MMRCA selection is LIFE CYCLE costs.

The above point is bull crap

Typhoon or rafawel will cost more than GRIPEN but not by 8 or 10 fold.

I can also gurantee it will be less sanction prone then F18 F16 OR GRIPEN which has too much USA content

[EastWest]

You are right, no countries keep a good promise of peace. Our countries rarely goes to full-scale wars again.

Is this MMRCA going to rescue India when you have alot of MKIs, upgrading Bisons, BrahMos, upgrading Navy, and so on. What does this to do with terror attack and threats of nuclear attacks? I don't see the basic reasons of new expensive jets to be inducted. If I am not wrong, Indian officials was not happy about double prices of Russia which India shared in last few years. It explained the second paragraph.

We see, India going second financial murderous expensive with new counterparts, technology, training after Russia. Saudi Arabia has variables European jets, US, soon to be Russian jets but hardly to understand in real-wars due to inexperiences, skills, and maintenances costly.

Saving cost effective is always priority anyway.

We have only MKIs and few other jets which will go till 2025..From 1980's to 2000(span of 3 decades) military modernization was stalled for our economy was in pretty bad shape.That is why u see lots of Mig 21's still flying.We have to replace them and we have to get planes which are not only the best now but also with upgrades serve IAF for the next 2-3 decades.So F-16 and F-18 though best plane around will not be suitable candidate also they are not providing ToT.Typhoon and Rafale are best choices as they are the most modern 4.5 gen planes and also dont come with any international diplomatic baggage.

The total order is 12-15 billion $ which by the way will be spread for a period of atleast 7-10 yrs which our economy should easily carry.Comparing us with Saudi Arabia is not proper as they did not fight 4 wars. Our needs are real and i think decision taken by the IAF and GoI is correct though i would like them speed up the process.

[lemurian]

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It is funny this bulls**** article praises Krishna Menon, the architect of the Jeep Scandal, one of the first scams in independent India as also the glorious defeat of 1962. Whatever Anthony's faults, he is not soft on corruption..