Indian Air Force : News, Pics and Discussion thread, page 6

Originally posted by carcharodon
I don't know stealth spy but you make the IAF as a rival that could crush the US airforce in a heartbeat.

I guess Indian progress as admirable and I will not enter to discuss politics. The thing is that your coments reminded me of that book called Animal Farm and the grain barrels and also Mussolini paising his air force on the eve of WWII.

If we look at the history of Russian equipments and their reliability issues and the fact that Indian is a poor country undeveloped country and the fact that they cannot take Pakistan a much smaller country ypu begin to wonder wether all this technological prowess is being exagerated.

And as it was pointed out. One thing are excesices and the other thing ais combat.

Are all of these weapons developed in India over a short perios of time, catch up with US technology in development for decades. It seems diffuilt to ccept.

Can India stop for example a B2 bomber?

Or a F-15 squad with AESA radars and supported by full AWACS and satellites?

Or could these squadrons could depoy in full numbers on time and engage the target on time?

Firstly, the reason for this thread is not to glorify the IAF, but simply to report latest news and information about it and its related issues as and when they are available (aint tht right stealth). The problem i think here is that you did not expect a country like India to have such a dynamic and fast growing defense industry. There is nothing wrong with this, and is a natural progression in the overall development of a country. India is not an offensive threat to the US and will not be so for some time to come.

Secondly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with russian equipment. Its the maitainance which lets them down (as most countries buying russian equipment cant afford to maintain them) but that is not the case with India. India has faced probems earlier with spurious spares but it seems to have learned from the same.

Thirdly, about taking Pakistan. India could have done it 3 times. But each time they pulled back due to political considerations (read overly righteous politicians, from the Gandhian Era)

Fourth, India is underdeveloped, but not poor. It may seem like a contradiction but it is not so. The Indian economy has not reached even 25% of its true potential. And even at these levels India is one of the biggest economies in the world. So poor it is not.

Fifth, it is a fact that duplicating a technology is far far more easier than developing a technology from scratch. The effort is to get the technology up and running. To get it to work. Once this happens, then it is easier for others to replicate the results as they know what to expect. Take the example of the USSR developing the atom bomb in such a short interval after the USA did so. So yes India is catching up with the US in terms of technology. Fast. It still has a long long way to go but it is getting there.

Sixth, can the US stop the B2? Maybe it could, but very few countries apart from it could pull it off. Maybe India could do it. Maybe even Rwanda could do it. It seems a bit pointless to speculate about such a scenario as not many people in the world are aware of the full capabilities of the B2.

Seventh, F-15 with AESA, AWACS & Satellite support. Yes they can be stopped. And i go so far as to say, without much difficulty. You forget that India already has, or is in the process of very soon acquiring, all of the above technologies. The F-15 is a great aircraft, but pardon me if i seem to think that the IAF has equally capable, and even better aircraft. But then that is a seperate matter of debate. Now if it was the F-22 then there might be problems. But then again it is all speculation until some one other than the US actually gets to see what the F-22 can do, one way or another.

Last, which squadrons are you talking about? USAF or IAF. If we are talking about the IAF, then let me tell you that the IAF is the only AF in the world that is on alert status 24/7. And probably, and here i am being a little presumptious, could deploy faster than any other AF in the world. You forget that both of India's biggest adverseries (former i hope) are within spitting distance of India's major cities and vice-versa.