India plans 1 billion euro Mirage upgrade

rock45

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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]India plans 1 billion euro Mirage upgrade
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9 May 2008, 0352 hrs IST
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TNN

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NEW DELHI: India is moving towards signing a big contract with France for the upgrade of the 51 Mirage-2000 fighter jets in the IAF combat fleet, which comes after a $964 million deal was inked with Russia to upgrade 63 MiG-29s.

The bone of contention between India and France for the Mirage-2000 upgrade, however, remains the huge cost of the
deal, which is in the region of 1 billion Euro.

"We are awaiting the response of the French companies (Thales and Dassault Aviation) for our request for proposal. The formal price negotiations will then follow," said a defence ministry official.

"The deal should be signed within this year. The French government has assured us the upgradation charges will be the same as for the French air force," he added.

Thales, meanwhile, seems confident that the deal will be finalised by the middle of this year. "The first four Mirages would be upgraded in France, with the rest being upgraded in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd under transfer of technology (ToT)," said senior vice-president Thales Aerospace, Francois Quentin.

"In the upgrade programme, the entire Mirage airframe will be stripped down to be re-wired and re-equipped with new avionics and weapon systems," he added, speaking after signing a joint venture agreement with Indian electronic display systems manufacturer Samtel.

India has initially bought 40 Mirage-2000s in the mid-1980s, which were followed by another 20 or so in later years. Since then, around 10 Mirages have been lost in crashes. But IAF remains quite gung-ho about them. At one stage, over three years ago, IAF even wanted the advanced Mirage-2000-V to bag its gigantic $10-billion contract for 126 multi-role combat aircraft.

Unlike the earlier deals to buy the Mirage-2000s, which involved no ToT, this time, the defence ministry will ensure that HAL is closely associated with the upgrade programme to enhance the operational life of the multi-role fighters by around 20 years.

The upgraded Mirage-2000 jets will get new avionics, including an advanced navigation system, new mission computers with increased capacity and processing speed, helmet-mounted displays, glass cockpits, internal electronic warfare suites and, of course, better armaments and weapon systems.

IAF is undertaking upgrade programmes of its MiGs, Jaguars and Mirage-2000s to enhance their combat potential, grappling as it is with just around 30-32 fighter squadrons, which is far less than its "sanctioned strength" of 39.5
squadrons.





http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...n_euro_Mirage_upgrade/articleshow/3023458.cms
 
attrition rate

I'll say for the number of aircraft they have they do have high attrition numbers. The Mig-21 rate is high, a few Mig-27s, one or two Mig-29s, and 16 out of 32 Harriers jump jets. One could only assume training issues and weak maintenance but I have no way of really knowing most accidents aren't made public. India only has three squadrons of Flankers for some reason I thought they had a much better force. Imagine if Pakistan really did the right thing and help us and really tried to fight the terrorist ! They would past India in modern aircraft in less then five years, most likely less. Sadly we know Pakistan won't do that but India seems to have a lot of nerve to wait ten years to pick a fighter. A few Special Forces strikes against there Flanker bases and there goes there edge air power wise. There 2nd and 3rd best fighters are Mirage 2000/Mig-29A, both 80s tech. Pak's newer F-16s with a little AWACS could handle that. If China comes through for Pakistan next year with a Chinese made engine and a radar/weapons suite, India may find themselves behind the eight ball. Most of India's Flankers won't be finished until 2015/2017, were in 2008. India seem to back themselves into a corner. China has R&D money and unlike Russia operational production lines for that J-10 fighter. India keeps waiting and China will have a Block-II J-10 out soon enough.

A quick India breakdown
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Units/Fleet.html
 
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