HALF BAKED POSTS ABOUT THE RAFALE HURT THE INTELLIGENTSIA

POINT OF VIEW: A LIABILITY CALLED RAFALE

I refer to an article by some self-professed expert on India's excellent Rafale deal. It is built on the surmise that "a fully loaded Rafale is only as capable as the Su-30, MiG-29 and Mirage 2000." The talk of Su-30/Rafale for distant nuclear delivery against China is too far in the future to consider today.

I am aghast at the tripe pushed out by this author, confirming that he has little or no clue about strategic concepts in sub-continental Air Power. To even raise the issue of long-range strategic bombers, such as the Tu-22 and the Tu-160 shows up a strait jacketed forward vision and puerile logic. He seems totally unaware of our multi-service Strategic Forces Command, aka Strategic Nuclear Command, the major chunk of India's Nuclear Command Authority (NCA), which is mandated to look after our nuclear arsenal and its deployment. We have surface-to-surface missiles dedicated to nuclear attack over various ranges as well as aircraft that can deliver tactical nuclear weapons. Moreover, in the air, we have specific force multipliers in the AWACS and Air-to-Air Refuelling (AAR) capability. The Rafale has flown 6-hour missions with AAR over Libya under the control of their AWACS.

The SU-30 MKI is an excellent aircraft, with certain shortcomings in their BVR missile capability that will be updated in time, but it has ONE major drawback-it is licence manufactured by HAL, an overstaffed and underworked aviation organisation considered to be incompetent. Equating 2.5 hrs of an HAL worker to one hour of a Dassault worker is a sad reflection of this agency's capability. Boeing has deemed it unworthy of partnering with, as has Dassault. Dassault has foregone a US$22-25 billion deal rather than risk partnering with and vouching for HAL.

He forgets that an aircraft is potent only when it is airborne. Unfortunately, the SU-30, as also other ex-USSR/Russian bloc aircraft produced by HAL in the past and the present suffer from a common ailment, poor serviceability due to non-availability of spares. HAL is responsible for providing these spares. The IAF cries itself hoarse because HAL shows it two fingers when it complains.

Every year, the CAG blames the IAF for sub-optimal utilisation of such very expensive aircraft acquisitions, while appending an addendum that the IAF is held captive by HAL. The routine indictment was presented in 2018 as well, which slammed HAL for sub-optimal performance, both as an entity and supplier of the SU-30 MKI, despite the first fighter being inducted 19 years ago. The jets also suffer from ‘frequent snags’ in their fly-by-wire systems and deficient radar warning receivers, among other things. The French aircraft boast of a near-zero rate of failure in these two subsystems, though a recent shadow has been cast on the EFCS after a two-seat Mirage 2000 crashed on Feb 01, 2019, during take off in an acceptance test, killing both test pilots. Since security precludes revelation of figures, let’s just accept that it is unbelievably lower than that guaranteed by Dassault Rafale and seen in the best-ever induction of a fleet yet, the Dassault Mirage 2000.

The Govt of that era was reminded time and again to buy the offered production line of the Mirage 2000 at a discounted price, a much simpler aircraft to build, but our pro-USSR bent of mind scuppered the issue. Had that been done, the MMRCA project could have been phased in progressively and at a far lower cost.

The author has no idea how attack plans are made for enemy targets and which aircraft will go where, how and with what weapons. Do we have aircraft launched cruise missiles? Just the Brahmos and, perhaps, the Nirbhay. The most damage inflicting weapon that set up air dominance in the Iraq attacks was the Tomahawk cruise missile. Will we get western cruise missiles? Yes. From where? I’ll give you three guesses. Do we have the French AM39 Exocet sea skimming missile? No. Will we get it? Yes. If not at this juncture, then with the Naval version. The Meteor 100 km+ BVR missile? No, but we will get it. By the way, the Meteor was designed as the primary air-to-air missile of the Eurofighter Typhoon! It is not a purely French-built BVR but an MBDA multi-national product. Does any IAF aircraft have a comprehensive onboard self-defence system? Yes, an Israeli system; like on the Mirage 2000 which has a fairly efficient self-defence system. Which ac can operate in battle conditions from Leh (10,700’ AMSL)? The Rafale can. Finally, the Rafale is the only IAF aircraft that can supercruise, i.e., sustain supersonic flight with a useful weapons load efficiently in dry power, meaning without the use of afterburner or ‘reheat’.

Most importantly, the French aircraft weapon computer is compliant with NATO MIL-STD-1760, an electrical interface between an aircraft and its carriage stores, thereby simplifying the incorporation of many of NATO’s existing weapons and equipment, a major National First. The 14-hardpoint aircraft can thus carry US weapons without tinkering with its innards, as was necessary for some Mirage 2000 in the Kargil ops--this may well be an India-specific requirement. In fact, it has dropped the US laser guided bomb (LGB), the GBU-12 Paveway II in Afghanistan. Today, it can also carry the GBU-22 Paveway III, GBU-24 Paveway III and the GBU-49 Enhanced Paveway II LGBs, not that it will be required to. It has a payload of 9.5 tons. If 4.5 tons are allowed in external fuel tanks, it could carry weapons weighing up to 5.0 tons, which is more than, if not equal to what the IAF’s workhorse cargo aircraft, the AN-32 usually carries as load.

It is battle-proven. It flew in the 2011 Libyan theatre, which brought forth deficiencies that have since been upgraded to best operating standards. Unbiased aviation journalists reported that the Rafale had maintained a high operational rate throughout the deployment. It took part in ‘Opération Serval’ in 2013, Opération Chammal over Iraq against the IS in 2014, and in the April 2018 missile strikes against Syria. It is carrier operable and the Indian Navy is to conduct trials before a planned procurement of 57 Rafale Naval aircraft.

Detailed analysis of the 36 aircraft deal shows that India has bought it at the cheapest price, when compared to Egyptian and Qatar inductions. At least five other nations are in a dialogue with Dassault to purchase the Rafale. The UAE wants 90 aircraft. Against the Indian cost of around Rs 1,611 cr per aircraft, Egypt is paying the equivalent of Rs 1,702 cr for 24 aircraft, with another deal for 12 more in the offing and Qatar, Rs 1,893 cr for 36 aircraft in a different basic configuration, with plans for 36 more.

Last week, The Hindu newspaper stated that the Specific to India Equipment (ISE) cost was US$1.4 billion in the 2007 deal for 126 aircraft, or $11.1 million per ac. In the 36 ac deal, the ISE was US$1.3 billion, or $36.1 million per ac, a significant loss to the nation at $25 million per ac, totting up to $900 million.  

This is a simple case of mathematical jugglery by a master of disinformation, one Mr Ram. The fellow has even quoted wrong figures.  According to Forbes India, 22 April 2010, "during his younger days, N.Ram also started a journal called Radical Review, with his friends, P.Chidambaram (his classmate!) and Prakash Karat." Is this a case of 'You scratch my back???'

When you buy your best or first suit, you are reminded that for best results and longevity, you must buy a hanger, a dust-proof suit cover--plastic, synthetic, cloth-based, whichever-- and hang it in your clothing cupboard. If you do not have a clothing cabinet, you buy one. If you then buy a dozen suits, you will use a dozen clothes hangers and covers and place them all in that same cupboard, a one-time buy. The number of suits is irrelevant-you have to first buy that cupboard, in this case, the ISE. The number of ac (suits) you fit the specifically advanced kit with is of no consequence.

Dassault has a top-secret aircraft operating protocol, written in an equally top-secret language. The US, Israel, the UK, Japan and other countries have not been able to crack it. So, when you want to integrate items that are not in the aircraft’s compatibility list, you have to pay for designing that protocol. These weapons include the Astra BVRAAM, Brahmos and Nirbhay Cruise Missiles, Infra-red target detection by EO Pods and more. Jugaad, like modifying the Litening laser pod for the Kargil Ops, may or may not work. Can we take such a chance? I don’t think so. A specimen of each of these will, in all probability, be taken to France, the onboard weapons computer adapted to accept these items, test flights done to check viability and portability and so on. These will take time and money. The more Rafales you buy, the cheaper will the modification be on a per ac scale.

I simply don’t see how India Today can let such biased articles be published, tarnishing its own image, such as it is. He says, “The 'Super Sukhoi' version of the Su-30, more­over, meets the Rafale level of on-board data fusion capability.” That’s unfounded nonsense. That aircraft can carry only Russian weapons and some others, with help from a certain friendly country. It cannot carry NATO standard weapons that are infinitely superior to Russian weapons except for the K-74M AAM, an improvement over the upgraded R-73 (AA-11 Archer) AAM, which missile is to be fitted on the Tejas, and possibly the R-77. Yes, the Su-30 is data-link qualified with Indian ground systems, but not as optimally as the Mirage 2000, limited as it is to low-quality Russian processors which have been upgraded by using a quasi-western system. I believe it will also get the US ASRAAM, a modern see-you-kill-you weapon.

I resent the writer’s imputations. “Besotted by Western-origin aircraft, the IAF had hoped to use the initial order of 36 Rafales as a wedge to procure 90 more.” The man is confused. The Western C-130 Hercules is still flying as a frontline aircraft, inducted by the USAF in 1956 (and the IAF in 2011). That’s 63 years. Its USSR equivalent, the AN-12 was first inducted by the USSR air force in 1959, the IAF in 1961 and was retired by the IAF in 1990, 29 years after induction. The ancient Mirage III and V, first flown by the French Air Force in 1961 and acquired by Pakistani in 1967, are still flying, whereas the MiG-21s inducted in 1962 to counter them were retired in 2013, after relegation to and prolonged stay as an unsuitable and hazardous training aircraft. Western aircraft are far superior to their Russian equivalents. Even so, today the IAF has more Russian bloc aircraft than their Western counterparts. Besotted, my foot. 

As the Table shows, India did get the best deal.

Month/Year	Country	No of ac	Cost US$ billion	No of Bases	Cost of 36 ac*	Remarks	Cost per ac
Feb 2015	Egypt	24	5.9	1	8.85	Likely scaling up to 36 ac	Rs 1690 cr
May 2015	Qatar	24	7.02	2	10.53	Meteor and all trg Included, 48 more ac likely	Rs 1893 cr till date
Sep 2016	India	36	8.70	2	8.70	Base model	Rs 1611 cr
Nov 2015	UAE	90	Not known

*US$billion