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
