2019!
Eagerly
waiting for the year to come when we would start receiving the 1st of the 36
contracted
Rafales.
Suffice to say, without making it sound like a cliché, those Rafales would be a
game changer
in the
increasingly challenging and complex Asian security scenario.
Armed
with the deadly MICA and Meteor AAM (Air to Air Missile) cued on by the superb
RBE radar
most of the PAF fighters would be toast if it
were to tangle with the IAF.
Currently
in the BVR (Beyond visual Range) scenario at least on paper the PAF is at near
parity with the IAF. The IAF do have the superb and heavily armed Su30MKI but
the R-77 BVRAAM missile that it carries is plagued by manufacturing issues and cannot
be counted as a guaranteed protector against a likely swarm attack of US
AIM120C AMRAMM equipped F16 Block52.
Intractable
issues with the R-77 BVRAAM NATO reporting name AA-12 Adder forced the IAF to
hunt for the R-27 NATO code name AA-10 Alamo from Ukraine and support whole
heartedly the home grown Astra AAM missile. So desperate is the situation with
the R-77 that the IAF is even looking at arming the Meteor with the Su30-MKI.
IAF
fighter pilots responsible for evaluating fighter jets in the now cancelled
protracted MMRCA contract have rated the Meteor+Rafale combination very highly
and subsequently would more than likely have war gamed the Meteor+Rafale
against the PAF F16 and the PLAAF Su27/Su30 copies.
Once the
Meteor armed Rafale and the Astra/Meteor armed Su-30MKI gets inducted the complete
dominance of the IAF vs the PAF would be restored.
We will
look at an air war scenario in depth in future write ups , lets now concentrate
on what additional the Rafale brings on to the table.
Apart
from the Air to Air dominance that the Rafale would bring in assuming the
current inventory of the PAF does not gets upgraded ;with its RBE radar, SPECRTA
electronic warfare system, fusion sensors and MICA+ Meteor WWR/BVRAAM missiles,
the most striking and least talked about factor in the $9Bn+ USD (at 2016
prices) deal for 36 Rafales is the PBL or Performance Based Logistics that is
engrained into the contract. At any given time 75% of the Rafale fleet must be
operational as per the PBL clause in the contract. For an air force facing
squadron shortage and Russian designed and developed aircrafts having poor
serviceability and turnaround time the PBL of 75% is extremely critical to
ensure the deterrent against PAF and PLAAF squadrons based out of Tibet.
More to
follow in Part 2
