Why IAF rejected MiG 35 Fulcrum F

Why IAF rejected MiG 35 Fulcrum F

Many in the social media claiming that the MiG 35 is the better low cost option to ramp up the number of fighter jets in Indian Air force, without knowing the actual reason behind why IAF didn't said any words about MiG 35. Russian fighters are good, but not suits for modern Indian requirements. The air fighting evolved since years that dog fighting replaced with long range BVR missiles.

During the initial days of MMRCA evaluation, IAF rejected American F 16 and Swedish Gripen as a reason of single engine. the first lesson for the contenders that IAF clearly looking the modern fighter should fight in the dense condition, even if the IR guided missiles burst the engine, the fighter need to be return to base without being crashed.

During evaluations, MiG 35 was forced out, without even tested by IAF in many conditions, This is recently declassified by the MiG CEO, which was published in IDRW .  This due to some reasons, one is during the evaluation trails two MiG 29's crashed in Russia, which forced all MiG 29 grounded. This issue also well addressed by live fist in early 2010. The detailed information explained by Shiv aroor and posted in Livefist .

The IAF's intentions is clear, that they don't want the MiG platforms so the Russian planes. This due to the IAF's serious discussion after the evolving ground threats and need of good close air support platform. Here many think dumb bombs can easily worked out. However this is not true, A fighter needs to be visually identifies the ground target before dropping bombs.

The Americans and the Western fighters doing this since decade after learning lessons in Gulf war. Pakistan and China has massive number of mobile platforms like Artillery's and Tanks. A good fighter with loads of LGB can only stop the enemy's offensive platforms.

The MiG or the Su 35 can't do this. Russians has different operating procedure, their main objective is defend the Russian air space from enemy fighters and provide air cover to the ground troops. The reason why Russia using so many Fighter jets and interceptors and operating very less number of ground attack jets like Frogfoots.

The Indian air force expanded it's capabilities from defensive mission into air offensive and close air support. Currently India has enough number of such fighter aircraft's. 300 of Su 30 MKI and another 60 MiG 29 UPG is enough for such mission. More over Indian air space is heavily guarded by long range missiles like Barak ( upcoming ) and Akash SAM systems. So the Indian air space is well protected by those layered defensive networks.

Those SAM's has highest availability rate and operating costs too very low, compared to a fighter jet. The Europeans are more smart in this field that they understand in the SAM theory, so they moved into multi role fighter jets and deploying more SAM systems.

The IAF is so happy with the usage of western fighter jets like Jaguar and Mirage 2000 and planned to keep those fighters upto 2030. those fighters are very good in precision bombing missions. they were upgraded and can provide close air support to the ground units in anytime, day night and any tough weather conditions.

Here too the Russian fighters do carry such precision guided munitions. But they were so costlier and they can't fly very low to drop those bombs. IAF can equip sixteen LGB's in a western platform with the cost of single MiG 29 or Su 30 MKI armed with one Kh 25 missile. hardly the Russians using the Missiles for precision strike and West uses bombs.

The Russians too tried GLONASS guided bombs, which is combat proven in Syrian civil war. However they were never comes closer to the western PGM's accuracy. PGM used to hit stationary targets, while LGB used to strike mobile targets. for both LGB and PGM, west uses Bombs, Russia uses Missiles for moving targets, and uses guided bombs for stationary targets. 

Lets assume a mission, a friendly forces operating with several armors and infantry units surrounded by large enemy column. The Infantry man calls for an close air support mission and the location also identified.  Fighter jets are usually very fast, they can cross some 400 kmph at minimum speed, The battle is encircled at some five square kilometers.

So the hard job for the Fighter jet is to identify the enemy targets, and escape from MANPAD threats. Usually two to eight fighter jets assigned to perform the task. So these fighter jets must be equipped with modern sensor suites to defeat the MANPAD threats and modern EO systems to identify the enemy targets in the grounds.

As one more the enemy targets are highly mobile, and they were close to the friendly units. One hard thing should be understand everyone, that our ground troops ill equipped to mark the enemy troops, the recent acquisition of multi purpose binoculars are the only option to laze the enemy target and directly feed into the fighter jets mission computer.

Once the identification acquired from the ground troops they cross check the info by checking their own. for that they need to be fly low and slow. Few fighter jets are performed this mission, like Tornodo, F 15, F 18 and the Rafale. Hardly no Russian jets can perform such mission. they hits many stationary objects in Syria, but no identities of mobile targets. US on the other side performed some good mission by destroying many mobile targets and convoy's.

India is not going to fight against militia or poorly equipped army's, India needs to fight against two modern army's even in tough terrain condition. So CAS will be achieved with modern multi purpose fighters like Rafale. not the air superiority fighters like MiG 29 or 35.

MMRCA Ver 2.0 Soon

MMRCA Ver 2.0 Soon

   There is a buzz doing the round at the Raksha Mantri establishment coming from a reliable source that government of India will soon announce a new MMRCA tender to procure some 90 Combat Jets under make in India scheme to replace the mother of all deals to procure 126 MMRCA which was officially scrapped some days back when the decision was intimated in written submission in parliament by the defense Minister.

   The new MMRCA tender to buy 90 combat Jets could be Light or a medium category or mix of both to be manufactured in India under Make in India campaign of the NDA govt. The present deal is not yet official and it's speculative in nature however the sources that leaked this information are very reliable.

   The real reason behind the cancellation of the earlier MMRCA deal or the Rafale deal is the cost issue, as French accepts all Indian conditions by transferring almost all top french latest state of the art technologies, they ask more money to transfer the said technologies. The actual Rafale deal was to buy 18 or a Squadron of fighters from French firm Dassault, the remaining balance some 108 numbers was to be built in India at HAL's production center, 50% of the deal value to be invested back in India, and 100% Transfer of Technology(ToT) under the make in India policy.

    Unfortunately because of the cost escalation, initial $12 billions to $15 billions, the government of India had issue with payment due to budgetary limitation, add to that was the bone of contention between HAL and Dassault. Dassault wanted to manage HAL's assembly line in India, where as HAL opposed Dassault's supervision in their work. Offset clause which Dassault disagreed was to take full responsibility of quality of HAL produced Rafale. A complex contract was under negotiation by both Vendors with no end in sight. Since IAF strongly pitches Rafale the reason being IAF's familiarity with the French made Mirage Aircraft for multi role mission more than the HAL made Su 30 MKI Aircrafts.

Let's look at the complex issues.

• The Government of India had budget limitation,
• HAL's wouldn't want direct Supervision,
• Dassault couldn't guarantee Aircraft's quality without direct supervision and
• IAF's was in urgent need of Multi role Combat Aircrafts

    The above negotiations hit the road block that led to the Government's cancellation of the earlier Rafale deal and went for a direct purchase of Rafale Aircraft. The direct purchase of the shelf of 36 Rafales has been valued around $5 billions including the weapon system (hundred each of MICA EM, IR and Meteor missile costs half a Billion, and the CNC ask Dassault to accommodate the Indian made Astra BVR missile in the Rafale's arsenal, that adds up additional cost while Countries like Egypt and Qatar signed deal within a month with Dasault it's only with India that the feal could not be finalised(We all know in the past during the UPA regime delay was amplified due to scam/kickback fear)

   The IAF insist the Government their requirement to field more than 8 squadrons of medium fighters as the current in principle arrangement of two squadrons is not enough.

    With the continuous pressure from the IAF, it's expected that the government will once again float a tender to acquire 90 aircrafts under make in India. It's clear that IAF will select the Rafale, there were many reasons why IAF selects the Rafale, from it's size to it's flying capability, multi role mission, 4++ generation platform etc. A simple example in favour of Rafale is most IAF hangers are built to house the early MiG variants, usually they are small and compact enough to fit in small size concrete shelters, but they don't have enough room to accommodate much larger fighters like Su-30 MKI.

    The Rafale is small in size which can perfectly fit in the existing shelters. Other Contenders like Sweden's Saab Gripen and MiG 35 is out of the race because of many reasons, in Gripen's case it's engine comes from the US and it's a single engine aircraft, when use in low level most single engine fighters have problems despite foreign objects in the jet intakes and jet air flow, but with the twin engines the survivability increases by 100%. The MiG 35 is still in production so combat worthiness is still a subject of debate Or in plain simple words it's not yet battle proven; there is no clear information about the AESA radar, major issues are the Russian Engine is not quite upto the mark when compare to their Western competitors, Russian electronic attack capabilities much lower than the western and American ones.

    The advantages of Russian Planes are they are more maneuverable than the western and American fighters and enjoy's aerodynamic superiority. Having said that those shortfalls were compensated by advance tracking and missile system possessed by the western and American fighter planes. If low cost fighter was the sole consideration the Mig 35 is the sure winner unfortunately IAF annual bill for maintenance cost more than the procurement cost as CAG Reports mentioned that and the combat readiness of the fighter Jets stays somewhere between 60% to 70%, meaning out of 100 numbers of MiGs which are operational only 60 or 70 are combat ready. For eg. if IAF asks the MiG 35 to do one more sortie before the Night, the ground crew will take another 2 hours to complete the ground clearance, the Rafale is the only fighter that can do more number of sorties than all other fighters, and can be configured quickly for different roles so it's a true multi role fighter.

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