The Military-industrial Scientific Research System of the Academic Master - Chapter 728

Chapter 728: The ambitions of South Asian powers

 After a long time, Admiral Klimpa spoke again:

“If we agree with Colonel Prayan’s suggestion, then… what channels are there to obtain a reliable early warning and command aircraft in a short period of time?”

“After all, I think that after going through the ASP plan, Stan Airlines should not be able to count on it anyway.”

Facing this somewhat sudden question, all the generals looked at each other. This time, including Lieutenant General Bhadauliya, no one spoke immediately.

 After all, when it comes to equipment procurement, many times it is not just a technical issue.

If you rashly offer your opinions at this time, you may be “sidelined” for no apparent reason.

If the plan succeeds, it’s easy to say, but if something goes wrong in the middle, it will be easy to be thrown out as a scapegoat.

It’s not like 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 personal matters next.”

“Then just buy two A50Us currently in service in the Russian army?”

 To become a great and influential country, it is definitely not possible to just rent planes.

The person just now was not a member of this interest chain. He suggested renting a plane just out of habit. Therefore, when the leader objected, he immediately changed his tune:

“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. This way the price will be lower than new ones, and the delivery speed will be fast. Based on our past experience, this kind of arms sales drawn from active equipment can be completed in about half a year at the earliest.”

“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…”

 The meaning is already obvious.

 Hence, after no longer worrying about leaving archived records, the atmosphere instantly became much more relaxed.

 Obviously, it is absolutely easy to form path dependence in terms of buying rather than renting.

Logically speaking, this should be considered the most practical plan for the Indian army.

 In this way, the rest of the conversation can be regarded as informal chatting.

“Chief of Staff, although the A50U will be available soon, after all, it is an old model from more than ten years ago. It still uses a traditional mechanical scanning antenna. The number of targets that can be processed at the same time is only 200-300. For our country, It will be difficult for an air force of this size to cope with the wars of the 21st century in the future.”

Hence, Klimpa immediately waved his hand:

 Especially Lieutenant General Badauliya, who initially expressed support for the purchase of early warning aircraft, was even more encouraged:

“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 they will be relatively stable in the past few years, so there is no need to be too anxious about the immediate situation. You can consider a slightly longer-term plan. ”

 Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and closed the notebooks in front of them.

However, Indians today still have dreams after all.

 Soon someone suggested:

“Can you consider renting two more A50Us from the Russian Air Force for temporary relief?”

  After all, early warning aircraft are still relatively sensitive. If you want to buy an existing E2 or E3, others may not sell it.

“Moreover, the cost-effectiveness of renting equipment is too low. The price the Russians offered for the Tu-126 was 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 good as in peacetime. It’s a good deal to buy a plane.”

Those who can sit on this occasion today are all high-level officials of the Air Force. Naturally, they hope to add more good things to their own troops, so that they can also improve their voice.

However, as expected, after the idea of ​​​​buying rather than renting was suppressed, the Indians’ overjoyed side of success immediately took over.

 The recorder got up and left the meeting room directly.

The words he used to guide 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 chief of staff of the Air Force, it may be difficult for him to escape accountability.

But the officer who made the first suggestion did not give in at all, and immediately retorted:

“But even the American E3’s technical status is basically about ten years ago, and it also uses mechanical scanning radar…”

However, such arguments cannot refute the eloquent Bhadauliya.

As a theater air force commander, he has been tracking the most advanced aviation technology in Europe and the United States for a long time, 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 a follow-up. ” ˆ ˆ “This…”

The other party obviously didn’t know the details of this MC2A project, and was speechless for a moment, 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? MC2A should still be just a plan, and even if the plan is completed, Americans may not sell it to us.”

Seeing that the atmosphere in the conference room was already smelling of ignition, 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 a mature model that is already in service. With its small size, the delivery cycle should be very fast…”

As a result, after finishing one sentence, the other two people who were about to quarrel 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 canceled, and its take-off weight is only just over 20 tons.”

Badoria clenched his hands into fists 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 may be enough for countries like Sweden, but it is difficult for us to provide it. Enough mission time.”

 Obviously, he is not willing to purchase only a small-sized light early warning aircraft.

 “General Badauria, what’s your opinion?”

The lieutenant general, who had just been beaten back by the two men, had no choice but to ask:

“If you think none of the plans we proposed meet the requirements, you should have your own ideas, right?”

“Of course.”

Badauliya was waiting for this moment and immediately sat 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.”

“There are currently 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, it will Only the Philcon system of the Kingdom of David is left.”

“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 Klimpa, who had not made a clear stance just now.

Although it sounds like a question, this issue has gone directly to the implementation level, indicating that the admiral is obviously also interested in the Falcon system.

Having seen through this, Badauliya decided to strike while the iron was hot:

“We don’t need to use the Boeing 707 platform. After all, the original Falcon still has a blind spot of about 60° at the tail.”

 At this point, he paused for a moment, and then changed the topic:

“A few years ago, China and the Great Patriotic Republic jointly launched an early warning aircraft research and development project called the ‘Ring Project’. It used the Falcon system to adapt to the IL-76 transport aircraft platform. It looks similar to an A50U, but its functions are different. It is 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 over this matter, but it obviously has no effect.”

“The early warning aircraft project should be in a state of stagnation now. The British side 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. In this way, the sunk cost invested in the early stage will be wasted… So I think they should have a strong desire to find a home for this project.”

Having said this, Bhadauliya did not continue. He just looked at the colleagues next to him with a look that said “everyone understands”.

“You want to stop 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 powers as its main competitors, or imaginary enemies (although the other side does not think so).

Hence, 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 also easier to pass in New Delhi.

 “That’s right,”

Badoria nodded:

“According to previous reports, the price negotiated by Huaxia and David Country was US$350 million per aircraft. Of course, this was the situation in the early 1990s, but if we take advantage of David Country’s eagerness to withdraw funds, there would be a lot of potential. There is a high probability that the original price will be maintained.”

“You know, even if we buy a second-hand A50U now, the price will not be lower than this figure… 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)