Missile Deal This Week, Mirage Upgrade Starts Next Month

As revealed by the IAF chief last week, two Indian Air Force Mirage 2000s will leave for France next month to begin the long-delayed Mirage upgrade programme that India signed with Dassault, Thales and HAL in July this year. The Indian upgrade team has been in France for a while now training and absorbing the upgrade routine. A deal for MICA air-to-air missile, which remained unsigned when the Mirage upgrade deal was concluded, is also expected to be cleared this week.

Photo / IAF

25 thoughts on “Missile Deal This Week, Mirage Upgrade Starts Next Month”

  1. The MMRCA deal was 'expected' to be concluded in March this year. With this government I won't believe anything until I see it happening.

  2. and this will take 10 yrs to complete..
    so by the time we finish this upgrade the only opponent we can use it against will be in sub Saharan Africa

  3. It will be interesting to see whether with the Mirage 2000 upgrade, the Dassault gets the Rafale as MMRCA or not.

    I think-Yes, but in any case it is going to make or break many theories and consequently many hearts. Lol…

  4. what will happen to the RDY-2 Radar and other avionics ? why dont they fit them in Mig-21 a/c? though not an easy task ,but it is possible which our pvt defence industry can do with the help dassault!!!

  5. what will happen to the RDY-2 Radar and other avionics ? why dont they fit them in Mig-21 a/c? though not an easy task ,but it is possible which our pvt defence industry can do with the help dassault!!!

  6. @Hao so dum,
    What do the Pakis have????In 10 years what will they be having?Super duper stealthy jf-17s!!!Or all the J 10,20sss they keep on fantasizing about!

  7. seems good to protect Mother Land. Crores of rupees from Tax payers money. But what it takes to protect our country? what we do when bastards attack Mumbai?

    Manmohan is another Gujral. Gujral betrayed our RAW. Manmohan is betraying the whole country by being friendly to pak. in his words gilani.. a man of peace, India-pak share a common destiny… what a shame??? bloody stamp.

    he is allowing scams to happen just to keep him as pm and keep congress in power. bunch of mfb at central level.

    antony, modi and jaya to a bit are my only hope.

  8. @anonymous 8:19PM
    Just coz I used a chinki sounding name doesnt mean I am chinese,.look at the content of my comment!

    Now the reply:

    Indian security doctrine is not based against Pakistan threat alone…FYI

    And just coz pakistan eats grass, doesn't mean we will too !

    I was referring to the unusually long time frame of execution of this deal (which if you look at earlier posts, even shiv has mentioned the same)

    My personal hunch is that this deal is a hedge against the MMRCA, so that we get crucial french avionics technology, immaterial of which way the MMRCA competition goes and Get it much earlier! (check 1st batch of planes gets upgraded in only 1yr)

    And that should help us do a technological leapfrog in terms of avionics technology and which should help us greatly in AMCA and FGFA.

  9. This means the surely Dassault is out of MMRCA contract…Now i can bet that Eurofighter will be the WINNER IN MMRCA FIGHT.

    US got- P-8 and C-17 and C-130 deals worth 6-7 Billion USD

    Russia got- Joint Pak fa and Mig-29k additional order plus Mi-17V orders worth 6-7 Bn USD

    Now France got- Mirrage Upgrade offer at a very high price.

    So now next is Germany,UK and other's share need to be paid via MMRCA deal.

    All for UN's permanent seat i guess

  10. @anon 7:29
    The only issue with the Mirage upgrade is the 9-10 year frame(but is that the final schedule and can it be pushed?Who knows),otherwise Mirage 2000s will still be an asset to us 10 years down the line too in our context.The Chinese threat to us I think is still on the ground,given the terrain of our borders with them.What will be crucial for us is to have well equipped mobile mountain divisions with, mobile artillery,light tanks, full air-defence and helicopter elements.Any future conflict between us will be more of a clash with the Chinese seeking to punish us swiftly and suddenly without prolonging a conflict.Our foremost aim should be to have fully deployed ground forces locally to deter any Chinese moves.This is not to discount the air-force at all,but given that the army is raising 10 new divisions I think in the China context we have to be very strong on the ground. I still think in the medium term PAF remains our biggest threat for the IAF.

  11. @anon11.10PM

    I am no military strategist, but going by recent news reports, IAF is upgrading and activating its airstrips all along the eastern sector (chinese border) and basing its fighter squadrons there.

    So the facts on the ground say that IAF is going to be involved in a major way in any future conflict with China.

    And since, Mirage 2000s are used for strike role/ground attack in the IAF- it might one day be used in such a scenario in ladakh/AP region as well.

  12. @anon 1:07,
    As I have said in my post,I am not at all discounting the Air-force.The air assets being developed are the bare minimum required and are essential for providing air cover to the vast air support operations by transport aircraft for that region.But,for any substantial offensive air operations against the Chinese,we need much much more.I still think the main danger from China is the launch of a quick massive attack,on a wide area, to grab as much land as possible and inflict maximum damage to teach India a lesson. A repeat of 1962.The only way to deter that is to have a capable and well equipped mountain divisions on the ground.These divisions must have light tanks,light 155mm guns,Rocket artillery at least of Pinaka grade, pref smerch where possible.Air-defense elements and lot of helicopters.Our guys are working on it,though the arty part is the main worry. The IA talks of additional 10 divisions or almost 100,0000 soldiers for the Indo-China border.Air power alone is not effective on mountainous positions nor does air power occupy land.For that you need boots on the ground.For China to mount a decisive effective attack on the defensive Indian positions it will require at the least 1:5 ratio of men.That is a huge commitment and such large scale mobilization will not be easy to conduct undetected.India's best bet against China is deterrence on the ground.If extensive air power is to be used,that means the conflict is going to be much wider and longer.We have to much more prepared in that scenario with an aim not to win n necessarily,but retain that much capability to extract the maximum costs from the enemy. For that we also better get our nuke-subs,Agni -Vs,Air-Craft carriers online ASAP.

  13. The only reason Mirage-2000 upgrade is going to take 10 years is because HAL has its hands chock full of projects and our hardcore Commie Defence Minster JK Antony gets catatonic at the mere idea of letting the private sector handle what HAL can't.

    Monopoly Jai Ho! Parasitic Sec… er, Public Sector Undertakings Jai Ho!

  14. @anon 4.25pm: I did not discount IA in such a scenario at all. I just said that IAF will be much more involved from the front-line unlike in the past.

    To think that any future conflict will be similar, either strategically or tactically to a 1962 like conflict is foolish, at best.

    We are moving towards a much more network centric warfare where the WW2 era differences b/w air and ground combat is blurring fast.

    Secondly, your underlying assumption (questionably ?) is that India in any such circumstance will primarily fight a defensive war and the theater of battle invariably will be in Indian territory.

    Again this is something which is a baggage of history.
    The requirement of IAF is exactly to counter this thought process, as with a size-able air power we can destroy their supply lines/infrastructure in their territory, before encircling their invading forces in our territory.

    To clarify again, I am not taking anything away from IA, its not a either/or game b/w IA and IAF, rather its much a combined arms kind of scenario, that we are gradually moving towards. And the only thing stopping us, is our own mindset!

  15. @anon 12:11,
    You are correct and in fact the Indian Forces are moving on those lines. Exercise Sudarshan Shakti at this moment is testing such concepts.Indian forces are also identifying points where India can strike across on the India-China border.Having said that, indications particularly from political leadership is that a conflict with China is the last thing anyone wants and no one certainly wants a spread out and deeper conflict with China.The push back in development for India and China will be very serious.The aim I think is to develop such forces on the ground, backed with such strike capability in air and on surface to make any invader pay such costs that the an attack becomes less of a feasibility.1962 happened because our forces were not spread out in strength,did not have capability akin to what they were asked to do and they simply melted away due to a combination of bad leadership,lack of equipment and firepower.Where the IA did fight,they gave it back well.

    The pakis have a pathological and ingrained hatred for India and I think they will never change fundamentally.The Chinese look on self-interests and a sense of superior nationalism.India is looked upon as small player which should know its place and it should not enter into foolish quests to be equal to China.India is to be tolerated and it must know it place and not raise its voice.And if it does not,it must be punished and tught a lesson.The message to send across is the Chinese may think what they like on their side,but if they get any funny ideas will throw them a beating to remember.This i think is in the medium term.
    In the longer term however your concerns will arise, as competition for resources arise between us,China may start taking a harder position and be more assertive.For that i think we should go radical and actually start thinking on lines of some Asian Nato. Pakistan as of in the long term increasingly may become an appendage of China.

  16. Anon @ 10:31PM

    So long as petty crooks like this UPA rule us and control our strategic and foreign policy India will remain a small player in global affairs.

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