The Indian Rafale's - Part 1

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