Airborne Early Warning Systems - A-50EI Phalcon, DRDO Netra AEW&C, DRDO AWACS

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That Somnath Mukherjee came out with stupid at the end.

The biggest gap in IAF currently is that Eastern Air Command lacks 6 AEWCS and 6 Tankers.

We will not be able to hold back PLAAF for more than 24 hours there.

The opposite. EAC is the best place for us, the Chinese are the ones at a severe disadvantage due to the geography. All they can do is perform air defence, maybe some CAS from a limited distance, at least until the next version of the J-20 comes in. The nearest plains is 900 Km away from AP and 1500Km away from Sikkim.
 
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That Somnath Mukherjee came out with stupid at the end.



The opposite. EAC is the best place for us, the Chinese are the ones at a severe disadvantage due to the geography. All they can do is perform air defence, maybe some CAS from a limited distance, at least until the next version of the J-20 comes in. The nearest plains is 900 Km away from AP and 1500Km away from Sikkim.
They are extending their runways on every airstrip they have on the Tibet table. Load will no longer be a constraint for them. And Y20 transport fleet, H6K and KJ200/500 support aircrafts are seeing permanent deployment by them.

They are on the higher ground, which means that yes on defence we will be giving them a lot of damages. We have enough radar coverage and make to do fighter numbers for that.

But if we want to strike and support our ground troops who might want to go in, we will be unable to do so without 6 dedicated AEWCS and 6 Refuelers.
 
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Speaking on Refuelers, the A330 MMRT has a really good deck space too in place even when acting in refueling duty.

Is it possible to create dual role A330 support Aircrafts? Instead of the passenger layout ,put a AWACS layout on the upper deck, and let the cargo hold be used to store transferable fuel?

I have no idea , maybe someone can point out the capabilities of A330.
 
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They are extending their runways on every airstrip they have on the Tibet table. Load will no longer be a constraint for them. And Y20 transport fleet, H6K and KJ200/500 support aircrafts are seeing permanent deployment by them.

They are on the higher ground, which means that yes on defence we will be giving them a lot of damages. We have enough radar coverage and make to do fighter numbers for that.

But if we want to strike and support our ground troops who might want to go in, we will be unable to do so without 6 dedicated AEWCS and 6 Refuelers.

Fighter jets won't have the range or payload to operate from such heights. Maintenance will also take a huge hit. So the air threat to the Eastern LAC will be quite low. They will probably focus on air defence there. It's a bit more even at the Western LAC because of Xinjiang. They still have to fly in from significant distances, but it's nowhere as bad as the Eastern LAC. Another drawback for the Chinese is they don't have enough air bases to operate from.

During war, many of those planes that require long runways will not be able to fly.

We have enough assets for a one-front war, not a two-front war. But we can handle either front with what we have today, at least by the end of the year. The effectiveness of the PLAAF is quite low because of the plateau.

In any case, a war with China will be an army-led war. As long as the army is modernised (like motorising infantry) and raises some more units (a 5th strike corps) by the end of the decade, along with IRF, the IAF will largely only have to concentrate on supporting the IA.
 
Speaking on Refuelers, the A330 MMRT has a really good deck space too in place even when acting in refueling duty.

Is it possible to create dual role A330 support Aircrafts? Instead of the passenger layout ,put a AWACS layout on the upper deck, and let the cargo hold be used to store transferable fuel?

I have no idea , maybe someone can point out the capabilities of A330.

We had already discussed this years ago. The IAF also officially asked for it, but it was later cancelled due to funds shortage. We are now looking at leasing refuelling capability for now while getting AWACS with second-hand Air India jets.
 
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We had already discussed this years ago. The IAF also officially asked for it, but it was later cancelled due to funds shortage. We are now looking at leasing refuelling capability for now while getting AWACS with second-hand Air India jets.
But now airforce is having sufficient funds right?
 
But now airforce is having sufficient funds right?
IAF was always flush with funds according to resident storyteller who's been playing the same tune since 2016 & who's also demonstrated that using the now famous formula second only to E = mc².

Pls note this was the scenario even before 2022. However , why exactly didn't IAF utilise all those funds for CAPEX big ticket purchases is a mystery second only to the deciphering of the Indus Valley Script out here in India.
 
But now airforce is having sufficient funds right?

Not exactly. Money is being spent as it is being freed up. A huge amount of capex was locked by the Rafale, MKI, S-400, Akash and MRSAM for 2020-2022, so that has been/gonna be largely freed up. It's how we got the deals for LCA Mk1A and C-295 done last year, along with AWACS and STARS. With the Rafale finishing up in a few months, the ISE is still pending, along with S-400 by September-October or so, followed by Akash by Dec and MRSAM before April 2023, we will see money freed up for new contracts this year.
 
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We had already discussed this years ago. The IAF also officially asked for it, but it was later cancelled due to funds shortage. We are now looking at leasing refuelling capability for now while getting AWACS with second-hand Air India jets.
On the other had we have enough gun to purchase personal transport plane for our leaders.