Chapter 728 The Ambition of the South Asian Powers
After a long time, General Klimpa spoke again:
“If we agree with Colonel Prayan’s suggestion, then...what channels are possible? To obtain a reliable early warning and command aircraft in a short period of time?"
"After all, I think that after experiencing the ASP plan, Stan Airlines should not be able to rely on it anyway."< br>
Faced with this somewhat sudden question, all the generals looked at each other. This time, no one, including Lieutenant General Badauliya, spoke immediately.
After all, matters involving equipment procurement are often not purely technical issues.
Having opinions rashly at this time may very well lead to oneself being "opposed" inexplicably.
If the plan succeeds, it is easy to say, but if something goes wrong in the middle, it will be easy to be thrown out and used as a scapegoat.
This kind of thing has never happened in the past.
Klingpa looked around and realized that the occasion was not appropriate, so he waved to the meeting recorder sitting next to him:
"The formal stage of the meeting is over, let's talk about things among ourselves."
The meaning is already obvious.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and closed the notebooks in front of them.
The recorder stood up and left the conference room.
In this way, the next part can be considered an informal chat.
Those who can sit on this occasion today are all senior Air Force officials. Naturally, they hope to add more good things to their own troops, so that they can also improve their voice.
So after no longer worrying about leaving archive records, the atmosphere instantly became much more relaxed.
Someone soon suggested:
“Can you consider renting two A50Us from the Russian Air Force for temporary use?”
Obviously, it is better to rent than to buy. In this regard, it is definitely easy to form path dependence.
However, Indians today still have dreams after all.
To become a great and impressive country, it is definitely not possible to just rent planes.
Therefore, Klingpa immediately waved his hand:
"Although we suffered some losses a few days ago, the combat effectiveness of the army on the opposite side is really not good. Generally speaking, it is a tie. It is estimated that recently They will be relatively stable in a few years, so there is no need to worry too much about the immediate future. You can consider a slightly longer-term plan. "
"Moreover, the cost-effectiveness of renting equipment is too low. The Russians gave the Tu-126 to that aircraft. The asking price is almost half of the cost of the aircraft. If there is damage or failure during the rental period, there will be high compensation... In short, it is not as cost-effective as buying an aircraft in peacetime.”
"Then just go and buy two A50Us currently in service in the Russian army?"
The person just now is not a member of this interest chain. He proposed renting planes just out of habit. Therefore, when the leader objected, he immediately He changed his tone:
"After the disintegration, they don't need or maintain the dozens of early warning aircraft. We can select some in good condition and renovate them a little, so that the price is compared with new opportunities. It is lower, and the delivery speed will be very fast. According to our past experience, this kind of arms sales drawn from active equipment can be completed in about half a year at the earliest."
Logically speaking, this should be considered a good investment. This is the most realistic plan for the Indian Army.
After all, early warning aircraft are still relatively sensitive. If you want to buy an existing E2 or E3, others may not sell it.
However, as expected, after the idea of buying rather than renting was suppressed, the Indians' overjoyed side of success immediately took over.
Especially Lieutenant General Badauliya, who initially expressed support for the purchase of early warning aircraft, was even more encouraged:
“Chief of Staff, although the A50U will be available soon, after all, it is already ten years old. The old models from many years ago still used traditional mechanical scanning antennas and could only handle 200-300 targets at the same time. For an air force of the size of our country, it may be difficult to cope with future wars in the 21st century. "
"Furthermore, according to Russian habits, even if it is a second-hand aircraft drawn from the active army, their price will probably not be much lower than that of a new aircraft..."
He used The words of guidance were very good. Admiral Klingpa had almost agreed to the plan to purchase the A50U, but after hearing this, he suddenly became hesitant.
If the early warning aircraft purchased at a large price soon falls behind, then as the Air Force Chief of Staff, it may be difficult for him to escape accountability.
But the officer who first suggested it did not give in at all, and immediately retorted:
“But even the American E3’s technical status is basically about ten years ago, and A mechanical scanning radar is also used..."
However, such arguments cannot refute the eloquent Bhadauliya.
As a theater air force commander, he has long tracked the most advanced aviation technology in Europe and the United States, so he quickly found the other party's loopholes:
"Because of this, the US military has launched a new early warning aircraft research and development project last year. It plans to replace the E3 and E8 models with the MC2A early warning aircraft on the Boeing 767 platform. The Russians lost their research and development capabilities in this area after the disintegration, so they did not Just following up. ""This..."
The other party obviously didn't know the details of this MC2A project, and was speechless for a while, so he had to change the topic:
"So , if you think the A50U cannot meet our needs, who else can provide a more advanced model? The MC2A is still only a plan, and even if the plan is completed, the Americans may not sell it to us.”
Seeing that the atmosphere in the conference room already smelled like gunpowder, another lieutenant general quickly raised his head and pressed down, and then tried to smooth things over:
"From a purely technical perspective, I remember that the Swedish Saab company delivered the first Saab 2000 platform early warning aircraft last year. It was equipped with an active phased array radar developed by Erieye, which should be in line with General Bhadauliya's requirements. requirements, and although it is not off-the-shelf, it is also a mature model that is already in service. With its small size, the delivery cycle should be very fast..."
As a result, after one sentence, the other people who were already about to quarrel The two of them looked at him almost at the same time and shouted in unison:
"No!"
On this matter, the two people's attitudes were very consistent.
“The size of the Saab 2000 is almost the same as that of the HS748 platform early warning aircraft that we just discontinued, and its take-off weight is only just over 20 tons.”
Bhadaulia clenched his fists with both hands and said emotionally:
“I think HS748 has proved that an early warning aircraft of this size cannot carry a large enough high-performance radar, and the range of regional airliners is not as good as Sweden’s. It may be enough for other countries, but for us, it is difficult to provide enough mission time.”
Obviously, he is not willing to purchase only a small-sized light early warning aircraft.
"General Badaulia, what do you have in mind?"
The lieutenant general who had just been scolded back by the two men had no choice but to ask:
"If you think that none of the plans we proposed meet the requirements, you should have your own ideas, right?"
"Of course."
This is what Badauliya was waiting for, immediately Sit up straight:
“Since you have decided to purchase from outside, you should try your best to get it right in one step and choose a model that will not fall behind in the next 10-15 years.”
“Now There are only two countries in the world that can provide active phased array radar early warning aircraft in stock. But as I just said, the Swedish plan is too small and not suitable for a big country like us. In this way, only Let’s go to the Felkon system of the Kingdom of David.”
"But if Falcon uses the Boeing 707 as a platform, there is a high probability that the Americans will not agree to sell it to us, right?"
The question this time was from Klingpa, who had not made a clear stance just now.
Although it sounds like a question, this question has gone directly to the implementation level, indicating that the admiral is obviously also interested in the Falcon system.
Having seen through this layer, Badaulia decided to strike while the iron was hot:
“We don’t need to use the Boeing 707 platform. After all, the original Falcon has a blind spot of about 60° at the tail. ”
Having said this, he paused for a moment, and then changed the subject:
"A few years ago, China and the Great Patriotic Republic jointly launched an early warning aircraft research and development project called the 'Ring Project', which used The Falcon system is adapted to the IL-76 transport aircraft platform. Its appearance is similar to an A50U, but its functions are much stronger. And because it is a traditional disk antenna, it can achieve 360° detection without blind spots.”
"Recently, due to some external reasons, the progress of this project has not been smooth. It is said that China has made many protests because of this matter, but it obviously has no effect."
"Now this early warning aircraft The project should be at a standstill, and the David Kingdom is unwilling to continue to push forward, but if it violates the contract directly, then at least the advance payment will have to be refunded, so that the sunk cost of the early investment will be wasted... So I think , they should have a strong will to find a home for this project.”
When Badauria said this, he did not continue, but looked at it with a look that “everyone understands.” To several colleagues nearby.
"Do you want to intercept this Chinese project?"
There seemed to be a hint of excitement in Klingpa's tone.
After the humiliating defeat in 1962, India has always regarded the northern power as its main competitor, or imaginary enemy (although the other party does not think so).
Therefore, if we can give China an eye-opener while advancing the early warning aircraft project, it can undoubtedly be regarded as a symbolic victory.
In addition to boosting morale, more importantly, such a plan is easier to pass in New Delhi.
"That's right,"
Badouliya nodded:
"According to previous reports, the price negotiated by the Chinese and the Davidic Kingdom is 350 million US dollars per aircraft. Of course, this is 90 The situation in the early 2000s, but if we take advantage of David’s eagerness to withdraw funds, there is a high probability that the original price can be maintained.”
“You know, even if we buy a second-hand A50U now, the price will be low. It will not be lower than this number... Moreover, the completion of this project is very high, and we should not have to wait too long to get the aircraft.”
(End of this chapter)