We don’t know yet if French Air Force chief General Denis Mercier (met him last year) will get behind the stick on an IAF Flanker at Garuda-V, but Livefist can confirm that over the last two days, Armée de l’Air pilots definitely have. At least 2 French pilots have done sorties Su-30 MKI and MiG-27s as well. IAF pilots have been taking spins in the 4 Rafales at Jodhpur as well, sources at the base confirmed.
Fascination about the Su-30 MKI is pervasive. Over the years, I’ve met scores of pilots in Europe and the US who said they’d do anything to get a chance to take one up. In 2008, Captain Hal Murdock, then commodore at Lemoore Naval Air Station, California told me that he and most of his pilots would give anything to fly a Flanker. A year before that, the USN pilot who flew me in an F/A-18F Super Hornet said he’d fly me again if I hooked him up with a Su-30 sortie.
NSR says …
SU-30MKI is a great air dominance fighter bomber…
It came to USA for Red Flag exercises and I read a lot of stories about their performance and Indian pilots in USA Newspapers…
Some pilots even testified before Senate/House about their capabilities…
The Super Sukhois with latest AESA radars can be even better performer…
India must convert all SU-30MKI to Super Sukhois …
Going to an all new plane like Rafale will create immense technology and logistic nightmares to India…
Besides that Rafale looks good too and is shining…
IAF's logistic nightmare is today with Su-30, and all other Russian jets for that matter.
Big fat Su is impressive on ground but useless waiting for spares and maintenance.
Raffy is king of the skies, Su is hangar queen :).
This shows the capability of Su-30 MKI's.. Great. 🙂
Rafale is very small near to the jumbo jet. i am pretty sure its going to give headache to pakis.
Rafale looks bit clean aircraft but SU30MKI is just huge.IAF has real good product.
We should include Tejas to test its stamina! It could be great to see the Sukhoi Rafale n Tejas trio
the rafale looks so tiny next to the mki
Sukhoi is a beast! Look at Rafales, they are at best side kicks. 🙂
Shiv good to see you back and with full gusto. Any news on whats happening to Arjun Mark II, light howitzer being developed in Pune, AESA radar at LRDE, Rustom II.
arjun mark2 wud be best for india but pakistan's al-khalid 2 can outwit arjun mak2 in all aspects
Rafel fits the perfect bill in overall IAF skeleton of squadrons since its pragmatic principle to have mix of heavy (MKIs), light (LCA) and medium(Rafael) size aircraft's in the inventory.
I don't buy the high- low mix mantra. What's the point? Rather have one good jet capable of all roles. Rafale beats LCA and Su-30 by far in all tasks. Extra flyaway cost is more than offset by single training, single -and much cheaper!- logistics, and most important: less numbers for more effect.
Size matters… Very impressive and very inefficient
the bigger the jet, the less it manoeuvres and the more it shows up on radar ("unstealth"). As fighter, I prefer small and nimble Jet a bit invisible rather than big fat sitting duck sticking out like sore thumb. As bomber, what matters is payload x accuracy. Rafale carrying 1.5 it's own weight (empty=10 tons, max 24.5). Su-30 has big payload, even greater (dead)weight to trawl it around but mostly un-smart weapons. During iron fist saw very impressive pics of Su dropping 26 bombs. But that's WWII carpet bombing tactic: spray tons to get one target, but you have to overfly so best chance they'll shot you down before. Rafale can hit 6 targets simultaneously at 50+km with pinpoint accurate "Hamner" French smart weapon
American soldier still continued using M16 even when AK 47 was easy to service and much popular around the world !
French still make their own weapons !
Chinease manufacture their own weapons after copying from russians but Indian army is happy to blame it to politicians and goes on shopping spree !!
Why Indian army never fought any war after 1971 even after several humiliations ?? is this because of politicians or their own in capability ?? I think they should be proactive than doing Garuda exercises …… what is the use of this when pakistan with less equipment's keeps making cuts and when you china you immediately run !
Nice looking planes, but we are looking at 4th or 4.5 generatio planes. The future unfortunately has moved on for some time now. Look, even Japan will be flying shortly its home brew 5th gen fighter. Return of the legendary Zero?
Nice looking planes, but we are looking at 4th or 4.5 generatio planes. The future unfortunately has moved on for some time now. Look, even Japan will be flying shortly its home brew 5th gen fighter. Return of the legendary Zero?