Introduction: The MMRCA or the Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft is sought to address the alarming drop in fighter inventory of the Indian Air force and provide it with a cutting edge multirole combat aircraft to defend India against the PAF and the PLAAF and if necessary fight a two front war with China and Pakistan at the same time.
Acronyms –
AESA-Active Electronically Scanned Array
CFT- Conformal Fuel Tanks
HAL - Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
IAF- Indian Air Force
MOD- Ministry of Defence
MMRA- Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft
PLAAF -People's Liberation Army Air Force (Chinese Air Force)
PAF- Pakistan Air force
SAM- Surface to Air Missiles
USAF- United States Air Force
UAE-United Arab Emirates
UAE-United Arab Emirates
The Contenders
1. SAAB Gripen NG
2. Lockheed Martin F16 Block IN Super Viper
3. Boeing F18 Super Hornet
4. Mikoyan Mig 35
5. Eurofighter Typhoon
6. Dassault Rafale
The Chosen One – Dassault Rafale was announced as the L1 winner of the MMRCA contract to supply the Indian Air Force with 126 MMRCA in end January’2012.Contractual negotiation between the Government of India and Dassault should be completed by mid 2012.
Back ground - The Indian fighter fleet is made of a mix of light, medium and heavy fighters .Most professional air forces of the world including the mighty USAF and the Israeli Air Force will keep this mix to ensure operational efficiency, a lower logistical foot print and lower maintenance expenses.
Its often said quantity has its own quality which roughly means you cannot have one fighter aircraft at two different places at the same time although one of them might very well be able to deliver the punch that two lesser sophisticated aircraft can.
For this reason the USAF and the Israeli Air forces maintain one of the largest inventory of single engine smaller F16’s and keep upgrading them although on some parameters they are less capable than the F15 Super Eagles a twin engine beast of an aircraft which is far more expensive to maintain and fly and has a higher logistical foot print than the smaller F16.
The Indian Air Force on the other hand maintains one of the largest stock of Mig-21’s outside the erstwhile Soviet Block. The Mig 21 is a single seat fighter many of which have been licensed manufactured in India by HAL .These fighters which have done yeoman service to defend the skies over India are ageing and inspite of repeated upgrades – the latest one being to convert 100 odd of the latest Mig 21 to Bison standard needs to be replaced.
The Indian Air force also fly’s the superb multirole single engine Mirage 2000 and swears by it. Unlike issues with Russian spares which IAF has had to contend with after the collapse of the Soviet Union the Mirage 2000 built by Dassault Aviation of France has had no such issues .The Mirage 2000 H version flown by the IAF was bought in the 80’s.A deal to licence manufacture the Mirage 2000 was scuttled due to the dire foreign exchange situation the country was facing in the 80’s. How things have changed! It would be an understatement to state that the IAF loves the Mirage2000.The bombing of Muntho Dhalo and Tiger Hill by IAF Mirages protected by the Mig 29’s brought the Mirage 2000 into prominence during the Kargil War with Pakistan. Yes it was a war and not a conflict as some have put it. The Mirage 2000 at that time did not have a sophisticated laser designation pod, Dassault and Israeli help ensured that Indian “juggad” of normal bombs mated with laser designation kits scored hits on Pakistani logistic camps and dealt a bloody blow to the aggressors.
The Mirage 2000H is an excellent aircraft to fly and maintain. However it has a few serious drawbacks, unlike the Mirage 2000 -9 in the service of the UAE Air force it has an outdated sensor suite ,radar ,an underperforming engine and almost outdated missiles compared with today’s top off the line aircrafts. If we go by the sparring duels between the Greek (Hellenic Air force) Mirage 2000 and the Turkish air force F16’s over the Adriatic we know that the Mirage 2000 can hold its own easily against the F16 under certain flight regimes. The F16 remember is flown in different versions by the PAF and is today the PAF’s most advanced fighter.
The Mirage 2000H based in Gwalior (TACDE – Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment, India’s “Top Gun” incidentally is also based in Gwalior) has another advantage – it is one of the platforms capable of delivering a nuclear airstrike although the preferred method for nuclear delivery in today’s age is vide Missiles.
Since the Mirage 2000 production line had ceased the only option open for the Government of India was to buy off the entire production line giving the deal to Dassault without any competitive bidding process, a thought unimaginable after the numerous scandals that has rocked the Government.
As is the case with defence deals and Indian bureaucracy the proposed deal dragged on and the requirements of the Indian Air force changed with the changes in the threat scenario. A new RFI was drawn up by the IAF and the MOD and 6 companies envisaged interest in the deal. In the interim the MOD and GOI went ahead signed a Billion dollar + contract with Dassault to upgrade the Mirage 2000H.
The Contenders -
The 6 contenders -SAAB Gripen,F16 Fighting Falcon IN Super Viper, Mig 35,F18 Super Hornet ,Rafale and Eurofighter were taken through a series of test to judge their performance both in Indian and their home nations.
As per media reports the F16 and the F18 did not perform too well in the hot and high tests carried out in India.In Leh,which is a strategic air field where fighter mission can be flown against both the PAF and the PLAFF based in Tibet both the the F16 and F18 had performance issues. What has surprised many is why the US Government through Boeing and Lockheed Martin choose to field the F16 and the F18 as contenders of the MMRCA contract. The F16 is flown by Pakistan and although Lockheed had promised India the latest version (even newer than Block 60 flown by UAE air force) with conformal fuel tanks ,a very powerful GE F110 132 engine and an operational superb AN/APG -80 AESA radar, it was doubtful that the IAF would have chosen an aircraft flown by its adversary .Strategically the F16 made no sense, it is at the end of its development cycle–being replaced by the F35 in USAF and other air forces ,was prone to US sanction and the block 70 being offered to India not being a production model would have meant endless hours if not a few years of testing funded by Indian taxpayers.
The IAF holds regular military exercises (usually Kalaikunda air base in West Bengal) with the Singapore Air force which flies the block 52 version of the F16 and by now it is safe to say that the IAF should have a deep understanding of this superb yet ageing aircraft. So 2+2 being 4 the IAF would already have had a fair idea of the capabilities of the F16 when compared with the other contenders in the race.
The F18 Super Hornet on the other hand is regarded as a super bomb truck but due to its aerodynamics and wing lay out is not that great when it comes to Air to Air missions. It does not mean that it is a slouch, with its superb sensor package combined with an operational APG 79 AESA radar and the AIM 120 AMRAMM series of missile it would be able to handle most of the contenders in the MMRCA contest. However its agility in the air is questionable, built mainly as a replacement for the F14 Tomcat in US Navy services,its wing layout is ideal for a carrier borne operations and not necessary to give superior performance in air to air WVR (Within Visual Range) combat, although to be fair to the F18 in slow speed maneuvers it’s probably the best and most modern air combat do take place in the BVR (beyond visual range) environment rather than WVR environment. The big advantage I felt if IAF had gone for the F18 E/F version was that along with the Super Hornet we could have also bargained for the EA F18G- Growler – The Electronic Attack version of the F18.This would have been a priceless asset to knock down S-300 or S-400 clones that the PLAFF has in Tibet in case a slanging match went out of hand.
Whether the F18G was at all offered along with the F18 E/F Super Hornet is another story, but if it had then most likely, like the F16 it would have come with a lot of strings attached.
The threat of “kill switches” being implanted in fighter aircrafts is nothing new , software’s which allow aircrafts to fly missions only against a specific country is also know to exists ( F18’s in the Malaysia air force are rumored to have flight programme’s in built by Boeing which do not allow them to launch attacks against Singapore ) and the likely hood of military sanction would have laid heavily in the minds of IAF planners while choosing the MMRCA and I believe would have gone heavily against both the F16 and the F18.
Personally I would have liked the F35 and the F15 silent eagle to be the contenders rather than F16 or the F18 from the US stable.
End of Part 1, Part 2 to follow soon
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