The S-400 is Air Force’s answer to depleting fighter strength. It’s time to seal the deal

That is the issue that I was highlighting. India was sitting on the offer from 2012 and did nothing until China close the deal in Nov-2014 ahead of India. In spite of the pressure that started to build on GoI, it still took 3.5 years for GoI to close the deal. That is a pathetic performance. GoI cannot hide behind the excuse that there was no money. All they needed was some money to make the advance down payment as the systems would have only been inducted in 2018/2019 right after the deliveries to China have been completed.

The IAF was probably waiting for the conclusion of the MMRCA instead.

Didn't people claim that S-400 was getting delayed as Indian deal would include S-500 tech unlike the Chinese deal?

Of course IN would be the first line of defense but India should plan multi-layer defense. There is no guarantee that the naval defenses won't be breached.

I don't know to what extent we will have S-500 tech. But we likely have a production deal because they were discussing about ToT and stuff.
 
Why should AMCA wait for LCA?

LCA is a 4th gen fighter while AMCA is supposed to be 5th gen fighter.

What India needed was the Rafale and FGFA deals which could have helped India kick start the AMCA program.

The IAF and MoD want the AMCA to start after LCA's FOC is done and dusted.

Rafale/FGFA will come in years later, when we actually get stuck making something that we can't. For early development flights, we don't need help.
 
South India can only be attacked with very long range missiles. The S-400 is good enough to protect Delhi and to a certain extent, Mumbai. But to protect the South, we need far more capable SAMs and those don't exist anywhere in the world today.

If the S-400 is deployed in the South, it will just uselessly sit there. It can provide protection against Pakistani missiles, but other than that, it will be pretty useless. What we need in the South is the ability to stop missiles fired from 5000Km away. The Phase I Indian BMD is good against missiles fired from 2500Km away, while the S-400 is good against missiles from 3500Km away. That's why we need S-500 or Phase II.

Any S-400 deployment in the South will be for protection against Pakistani missiles, not against Chinese.

J-20s supposedly have ~1,800 km combat radius


From Coco Island to Visakhapatnam:

1521991263651.png

From Coco Island to Chennai:

1521991869752.png

Mali to Bengaluru:

1521992258003.png

Mali to Karwar:

1521992477153.png
 
J-20s supposedly have ~1,800 km combat radius


From Coco Island to Visakhapatnam:

View attachment 2183

From Coco Island to Chennai:

View attachment 2185

Mali to Bengaluru:

View attachment 2186

Mali to Karwar:

View attachment 2187
I hope Chinese use these islands. Brahmos will get some good target practice.

Do you know how far is Coco island from Andaman Islands? Brahmos launched from Andaman will hit it in couple of minutes.

Have you seen Male airport? Even if some stupid Maldivian government agrees to let Chinese use it's land to attack India, where exactly they will park the fighters and store the logistics?
 
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The Chinese can't use any of those regions to attack India.

I have not even added Srilanka to the list which would turnout to be a lot worse for South Indian cities and bases.

One does not plan based on optimistic assumptions. All potential risks and outcomes need to be considered and mitigated.

All Chinese string of pearls need to be considered for both defensive and offensive planning purposes.

1521993857923.png
 
I hope Chinese use these islands. Brahmos will get some good target practice.

Do you know how far is Coco island from Andaman Islands? Brahmos launched from Andaman will hit it in couple of minutes.

Have you seen Male airport? Even if some stupid Maldivian government agrees to let Chinese use it's land to attack India, where exactly they will park the fighters and store the logistics?

So you are willing to put the entire Indian defense strategy at the mercy of Indian bases in Andaman & Nicobar islands?

So if those fall to the enemy then India is gone?
 
I have not even added Srilanka to the list which would turnout to be a lot worse for South Indian cities and bases.

One does not plan based on optimistic assumptions. All potential risks and outcomes need to be considered and mitigated.

All Chinese string of pearls need to be considered for both defensive and offensive planning purposes.

View attachment 2188

None of the areas that are geographically close to India are a threat to India. All those countries know the consequences of such an action.

There are only two threats to South India when we talk about the Chinese. It's the PLARF with long range missiles and the PLAN with their ships. Against PLARF, the S-400 is useless. Against PLAN, as I said, we need ships to counter their ships. Their carriers will be more focused on the IN than civilian targets in the South.

If you have doubts, you only need to look at Russia's placements of the S-400.

russias-s-400-deployments1.jpg
 
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I have not even added Srilanka to the list which would turnout to be a lot worse for South Indian cities and bases.

One does not plan based on optimistic assumptions. All potential risks and outcomes need to be considered and mitigated.

All Chinese string of pearls need to be considered for both defensive and offensive planning purposes.

View attachment 2188
Su 30 Mki armed with brahmos will render all Chinese infrastructure in indian ocean effectively useless ...
 
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Su 30 Mki armed with brahmos will render all Chinese infrastructure in indian ocean effectively useless ...

SU-30MKI with Brahmos and Rafale with meteor are fine from offensive strategy perspective but how do they help with the defensive strategy? Unless you are saying we do not need any defenses as we have such an awesome offensive capability. If that is so why do we need to procure even these limited S-400s? The same offensive strategy still holds good for North too. Shouldn't we spend the $5 Billion on more Rafales and SU-30 MKI rather than on S-400s?
 
None of the areas that are geographically close to India are a threat to India. All those countries know the consequences of such an action.

There are only two threats to South India when we talk about the Chinese. It's the PLARF with long range missiles and the PLAN with their ships. Against PLARF, the S-400 is useless. Against PLAN, as I said, we need ships to counter their ships. Their carriers will be more focused on the IN than civilian targets in the South.

If you have doubts, you only need to look at Russia's placements of the S-400.

russias-s-400-deployments1.jpg

These Chinese pearls know the consequences yet they keep flirting with Chinese. Isn't that intriguing?

All the defense and military agreements means nothing but pieces of useless papers when it matters. What really matters is the defensive and offensive strengths and capabilities of Indian Armed forces to take the battle to China and send shivers down the spines of the people who may even have second thoughts of entertaining the enemies of India on their territories.

Lastly, India is not Russia. Even the combined might of US & NATO does not dare to take on Russia. Russia does what they want when it comes to its national security. No other country even comes close to them.
 
So you are willing to put the entire Indian defense strategy at the mercy of Indian bases in Andaman & Nicobar islands?

So if those fall to the enemy then India is gone?
And the aircraft carriers, the 10+ destroyers, 20+ frigates and the Su-30 MKIs.

Andaman bases are the first line of defense. Apart from that, all the platforms mentioned above are capable of destroying the attack bases you listed.

If all of these are gone, then we are screwed anyway. What exactly the S-400s will do then??
 
SU-30MKI with Brahmos and Rafale with meteor are fine from offensive strategy perspective but how do they help with the defensive strategy? Unless you are saying we do not need any defenses as we have such an awesome offensive capability. If that is so why do we need to procure even these limited S-400s? The same offensive strategy still holds good for North too. Shouldn't we spend the $5 Billion on more Rafales and SU-30 MKI rather than on S-400s?

Maybe a couple of batteries will be brought for South too...
 
And the aircraft carriers, the 10+ destroyers, 20+ frigates and the Su-30 MKIs.

Andaman bases are the first line of defense. Apart from that, all the platforms mentioned above are capable of destroying the attack bases you listed.

If all of these are gone, then we are screwed anyway. What exactly the S-400s will do then??

Will Andamans have S-400 cover? If yes, that leave only 4 for rest of the India. If no, then you are making the most important bases in Andamans as defense less?

Let's not get blind with patriotism. You can go ahead and compare PLAN expansion plans with IN expansion plans.
 
These Chinese pearls know the consequences yet they keep flirting with Chinese. Isn't that intriguing?

All the defense and military agreements means nothing but pieces of useless papers when it matters. What really matters is the defensive and offensive strengths and capabilities of Indian Armed forces to take the battle to China and send shivers down the spines of the people who may even have second thoughts of entertaining the enemies of India on their territories.

Lastly, India is not Russia. Even the combined might of US & NATO does not dare to take on Russia. Russia does what they want when it comes to its national security. No other country even comes close to them.
Did you intend to marry every girl you ever flirted with ;)? It's the same scenario with countries.
 
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Will Andamans have S-400 cover? If yes, that leave only 4 for rest of the India. If no, then you are making the most important bases in Andamans as defense less?

Let's not get blind with patriotism. You can go ahead and compare PLAN expansion plans with IN expansion plans.
Who is blind here? I don't see any logical counter argument here.

Btw, S-400 is not the only missile defense we are going to acquire. There are/ will be layers of air defense systems like QRSAM, Akash, MRSAM and XRSAM in future.