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Putting a big question mark on the performance of the Russian beyond visual range (BVR) air-to-air missiles with the Indian Air Force, an audit report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has noted that nearly half the missiles tested either did not home in on targets during evaluations or failed ground tests because they were ageing much before their shelf lives.
The R 77 (RVV-AE) BVR missiles, fitted on board the Su-30 MKIs, MiG-29s and MiG-21 Bisons, were bought from Russia starting 1996. More than 2,000 missiles were ordered after the Kargil conflict and 1,000 have been delivered. The CAG report, which will be released soon, is based on evaluations of the missile — its range is close to 90 km — during ground tests, inspections and test firing by the IAF. The missiles were bought at a “cost of Rs 2 crore each” but their failure during tests, says the CAG report, has affected the “operational preparedness” of the IAF. “All figures in the report are based on air force records. Everything is verified by the IAF,” an official said. The problem with the missiles was referred to Russia and several teams subsequently visited India to rectify faults. IAF officers familiar with the missiles confirmed that this has been a problem area for long. “It is a known fact that the missiles do not work as we would like them to. Periodic tests that are carried out when they are in storage show their dismal state. We also have problems with spare parts,” said a retired officer who was closely associated with the matter. Former Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy said: “When the missiles were bought, they were top of the line, world class systems that no other country had. As we did not have our own testing facilities, they had to be tested in Russia. The question to be asked is whether the government approved testing facilities for the missiles in India.” The IAF has for long enjoyed an edge over Pakistan due to its inventory of BVR air-to-air missiles. In an article on the Pakistani side of the Kargil war — it was published in The Indian Express — the then PAF Director (Operations) Kaiser Tufail admitted that the presence of the BVR missiles with the IAF kept away the Pakistani F-16s from disrupting aerial bombing being carried out by India near the Line of Control.
The R 77 (RVV-AE) BVR missiles, fitted on board the Su-30 MKIs, MiG-29s and MiG-21 Bisons, were bought from Russia starting 1996. More than 2,000 missiles were ordered after the Kargil conflict and 1,000 have been delivered. The CAG report, which will be released soon, is based on evaluations of the missile — its range is close to 90 km — during ground tests, inspections and test firing by the IAF. The missiles were bought at a “cost of Rs 2 crore each” but their failure during tests, says the CAG report, has affected the “operational preparedness” of the IAF. “All figures in the report are based on air force records. Everything is verified by the IAF,” an official said. The problem with the missiles was referred to Russia and several teams subsequently visited India to rectify faults. IAF officers familiar with the missiles confirmed that this has been a problem area for long. “It is a known fact that the missiles do not work as we would like them to. Periodic tests that are carried out when they are in storage show their dismal state. We also have problems with spare parts,” said a retired officer who was closely associated with the matter. Former Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy said: “When the missiles were bought, they were top of the line, world class systems that no other country had. As we did not have our own testing facilities, they had to be tested in Russia. The question to be asked is whether the government approved testing facilities for the missiles in India.” The IAF has for long enjoyed an edge over Pakistan due to its inventory of BVR air-to-air missiles. In an article on the Pakistani side of the Kargil war — it was published in The Indian Express — the then PAF Director (Operations) Kaiser Tufail admitted that the presence of the BVR missiles with the IAF kept away the Pakistani F-16s from disrupting aerial bombing being carried out by India near the Line of Control.
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10 comments:
This is not the first time R77 failures have come to light. The only silver lining is that if R77 is having problems homing into targets, Chinese SD-10/PL11 that use R77 seeker cannot be any better.
But now that PAF is acquiring AIM-120C5 that will arrive from next year IAF needs to look at alternatives.
To above
You are just speculating because no one actually knows about Chinese weapons because military (not just chinese) tends to be secretative. Globalsecurity is a decent source but they dont have top secret clearance to PLAAF weapons. Again it is unlikely SD 10 will have same problems because the highligted R 77 problems have been discovered and most likely fixed. Plus the Chinese can repair SD 10 because their facilities are in China unlike Indian facilities have to rely on Russian help.
Man, look at all the indians here. They vote Su-30 to be the most capable, lol, LMAO. Everyone know that EF-2000, and Rafale is much better. Even the Russians saying SU-35 is better than Su-30mki.
indians are simply self-loving self-worshiping
I politely responded to him. You dont have to be agressive and start generalising.
those are not r77 but r27
india acquired r27 in 1996 from ukrain and r77 became operational only in 2002 with mig21bison and later in 2003 in with mki
and those r27 missiles have completed their life span which is less than 8 years.
If the problem is with Russian tech, how can the Chinese fix it. It is widely reported that SD-10 uses Russian R-77 seeker. Russians wont give seeker tech or production to anyone, not even to India.
To above
Chinese did not import bulk of Russian seekers and fix them on own missile.
Like I said were just speculating. Chinese could have opened up seeker and reverse engineered it or more likely based their own seeker on the Russian ones and improved on design. Either way the product is made in China.
or more likely based their own seeker on the Russian ones and improved on design
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You believe Chinese have the competence to improve upon the latest Russian tech(Seeker tech almost represents the cutting edge of a nations tech). The reason I am raising this is because a lot of Russian hardware that Indians have found to be underperforming has been bought by China as well. Like Club missiles, Shatil Sam, Krasnopol shells etc that continue to be probematic. Just because China doesnt report anything does not mean they are not facing any problems.
"latest Russian tech" please. Russia does not always sell its best.The models sold to China were not the latest models.
Plus the Chinese and Russians tend to actively do joint research, its not just buying weapons. Chinese will not just buy weapons they also ask for help in making own weapons. Russians in past have collabrated with Chinese in many fields. Joint research or knowlegde transfer might not make the news, but it happens.
Cont
there maybe problems with Chinese brought Russian weapons, but China is not reliant on imports to replace weapons, wheras India is. Shatil Sam, Krasnopol shells are produced in China, thus China knows the ins and outs of the systems thus could fix problem
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