A perfect example of shoot first, ask questions later.😉
Apart from Feb 27th, when a mere two Su30s held off a concerted PAF attack from 4 times their number of Vipers, the RusAF has deployed Su30 SMs to Syria for quite a while and they have been running regular sorties.😂😂
Apart from Feb 27th, when a mere two Su30s held off a concerted PAF attack from 4 times their number of Vipers, the RusAF has deployed Su30 SMs to Syria for quite a while and they have been running regular sorties.😂😂
In fact, the Rusdians were so surprised by how useful the Su30 was, they kept ordering more. It's right now the best fighter in their inventory bar a few Su35s trickling into service. As regards outgunned, outranged, it's a fact the Rafales come with Meteor. It's the longest ..
..ranged AAM in service currently. Likely to be challenged only by the PRCs new stick and the US's AIM-260. Unlike the others though, the Meteor is a throttleable ramjet which means it maintains a much better energy profile than regular solid rocket motors, making it dangerous.
Given its technological advances and Govt control in MBDA, Euro govts are careful to export Meteor only with Euro platforms and those NATO is comfortable with. Ergo, it cant be easily added to a Su30 w/o significant political clearance and quid pro quo.
The Su35/30 are not exactly that behind though, once Russias economy started wering an uptick, all those oil revenues, AAMs hot funded. One such program is the RVV-BD, a 300km class derivative of the existing R33/37 family. While optimized against large targets like bombers..
..fighters at half that range will be under threat as well. It will be on offer as part of any prospective Flanker upgrade to the IAF. Its nearest historical comparator us the equally dangerous AIM-54 Phoenix. Which too was optimised against large targets, but the Iranians..
..used it to devastating effect against the Iraqis who were frequently caught unawares as a Phoenix dropped at them out from above, literally swatting aircraft from the sky by damaging the close flying formation.
In India's case, we now have the Astra which aced its trials and is equivalent to what the PAF, PRC currently field the AMRAAM C5/SD10. In the works are the Astra Mk2, with a dual pulse motor as we've already fielded on the Indo Israeli MR/LRSAM, which DRDO developed. And SFDR.
SFDR is an Indo Russian program intended to field a Meteor equivalent already well into its development, and will offer a huge envelope increase over the Astra variants. At any rate, the Su30s are unlikely to be outgunned vs standard BVR armament if GOI opens its purse strings!
With networking via datalinks, buddy targeting, the Astra is a dangerous missile. But its equally true, that a weapons race is an expensive game. If the GOI wants an edge, it has to constantly invest in it. To begin with a Su30 upgrade focusing on weapons would easily add value.
Why is the Su30 so useful? Ironically, the very thing critics point to, its size, leading to high cost maintenance, is also its USP. The Flanker can hoist a 1 mtr dia radar. Like the US discovered with its F15s, such a platform can act as a force multiplier, acting as the eyes.
Of a larger package, able to pick.up and detect even LO targets at large distances and with a solid fuel fraction, the F15/Flanker class platform can stay in the fight for longer. BVR combat is a game of cat and mouse. Persistence counts.
While other smaller platforms are forced to disengage after the first few rounds, the Flankers and Eagles are still around, reasting themselves to deliver the coup de grace. To underestimate such platforms is folly.
Recently, after deliberating heavily the Israelis ordered a F35 squadron plus a F15 one. For the Israelis, the similarly sized Eagle has become their strike leader. If the F35, and for us the Rafale, is a scalpel, the Eagle and for us the Flanker, is a broadsword.
