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2007-01-29 India-Pakistan

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Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2007-01-29 03:52|| || Front Page|| [11132 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 George Bush realized the potential of India the way nobody else in Washington did. Despite their initial reluctance, prodded by Bush, they are now doubly amazed at how rapidly India is adapting to its new status as a world power.

And because of Bush's direction, the US is right in the middle of things, cultivating this new and potentially very powerful ally.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-01-29 09:25|| 2007-01-29 09:25|| Front Page Top

#2 By the Eye of the Vishanti this is excellent news!

Posted by Excalibur 2007-01-29 09:26|| 2007-01-29 09:26|| Front Page Top

#3 Speaking about accidents involving IAF aircraft, Air chief Tyagi said the percentage of such incidents has been considerably reduced. In relative terms, no other air force in the world has registered such a drop in the number of air accidents.

For a while the IAF had a truly horrfying accident rate - not quite as bad as that of the early jet years of the USAF and USN (when a pilot stood a 25% chance of not coming back from peacetime training missions, but damned close. A lot of that was due to their aging and increasingly decrepit fleet of MiG-21s, which IIRC have since stood down.
In a LOT of ways, the IAF has turned itself into a unique image of the USAF, and it will be interesting to see what happens in the next ten years or so.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2007-01-29 14:06|| 2007-01-29 14:06|| Front Page Top

#4 While the older Mig-21s have been mothballed, they still have an awful lot of Mig-21s. And they need those squadrons and they need to fly them hard.

Now however they are building their own Mig-21 engines, have more reliable Russian spares.
This has brought down the accident rate.

They badly need replacements though and it looks like either the F-16 or the F-18.

Posted by john 2007-01-29 14:41|| 2007-01-29 14:41|| Front Page Top

#5 The purchase of Hawk trainers from the UK, with the initial batches of junior-pilots and instructors being trained by the RAF has also helped.

The Mig-21 is an unforgiving beast. Pilots used to transition from propeller trainers to the single engine Mig-21 which lands at 500 kph.

One mistake while learning and they died.

Posted by john 2007-01-29 14:46|| 2007-01-29 14:46|| Front Page Top

#6 I thought the Mig-35 is the probable MiG-21 replacement. The Russians have even been using their influence (tech tranfer, denial of engines to Pakistan, nuclear reactors) to close the deal. Anything change that perception?

Posted by ed 2007-01-29 17:50|| 2007-01-29 17:50|| Front Page Top

#7 Manmohan Singh owes Bush a few favors (purchases) for the nuke deal. Russia has managed to sell new reactors before GE can get in the door.

They are going with Sukhoi for a 5th gen heavy fighter so the Russians are assured of revenue.
They already have orders for additional Naval Mig-29s (for the two aircraft carriers - 1 being refurbished in Russia, the other being built in India).

A split MRCA order is possible.

They might very well increase the numbers from 125 to 200 (the air force wants more squadrons and the Navy wants shore based strike aircraft to carry their new BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles) and split the order between the US (say 120 F-16s) and Russia (80 Mig-35s).

Posted by john 2007-01-29 18:10|| 2007-01-29 18:10|| Front Page Top

#8 The Indian government has deliberately delayed the tenders for the MRCA aircraft so that they go out after the 123 agreement and final congressional approval of the US-India nuke deal.

Posted by john 2007-01-29 18:17|| 2007-01-29 18:17|| Front Page Top

#9 Thanks.

Posted by ed 2007-01-29 18:56|| 2007-01-29 18:56|| Front Page Top

#10 Thanks for the inside scoop, John.

And I was just sittin' here *smirking* over China being caught between a rock (Japan) and a hard place (India), lol! Cornering 'em in, we are.

Posted by BA 2007-01-29 19:58|| 2007-01-29 19:58|| Front Page Top

09:46 JessicaL
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