IAF Nears Completion of Mirage 2000 Upgrade Program Despite Challenges

[ABHIJIT APSINGIKAR]

true, they are just a middleman in such projects, They would have asked Dassault to train them and would have charged commission for any work and parts, The same upgrade via HAL would have crossed 3 billion dollars.

God knows what sort of upgrades were designed by HAL, for a Mirage fighter that participated in Kargil and performed admirably, suddenly became so unstable that it crashed during the first test flight due to catastrophic fly-by--wire failure. It would have been best if the fools had not screwed with FBW software during upgrades and limited their upgrade package to avionics. Heck even then the new avionics package is clumsy and the mission computer is decades behind the world standard.

 

[Jay K Sinhal]

Billions without an AESA radar? Someone smoking something suspicious! St. Antony?

 

[Pink Panther]

HAL can easily upgrade mirage fighters with uttam AESA radar.

France won’t give access to the software, without access we can’t do anything, now these foreign watch loving people wanted Astra 1 integrated, for that we now have to beg France and they might charge $10-$15Mln for integration in each Mirage, it already costed $55Mln for each Mirage upgrade.

 

[Pink Panther]

There has already more than a decade since this upgrade package was signed. Dassault f*cked up and now won't it be better to go with indigenous upgrade given ours is more effective.

Without access to mission computer HAL can’t do anything, all HAL can do is to paint Mirage in different color, replace the tires, fill fuel when the fuel tank is empty and things like that.

 

[Pink Panther]

The money spent on upgrading Mirage aircrafts could have been used for buying one squadron of Rafale

With the upgrade money we could have bought 2-3 Rafale’s.

 

[Pink Panther]

Mirage 2000 undoubtedly one of the best fighter jet with IAF. Highly reliable and also with high uptime. Be it Operation Garland or Kargil war or Balkot strike , Mirage 2000 was always at the fore front. Very valuable asset indeed.

Yes legacy, any product has a expiry date.

 

[Ajath]

Yes legacy, any product has a expiry date.

Everything has a shelf life.

 

[Baiju Bhaskaran]

More like half a squadron.

We have spent almost 2.8 Billion Dollars i.e almost 24000 crore rupees for upgrading Mirage Aircraft's. The cost of Rafale aircraft was 670 crore rupees per aircraft which was in 2018, which will surely come down in second order. The 24000 crore rupees can cover 36 aircrafts i.e. two squadrons.

 

[Baiju Bhaskaran]

With the upgrade money we could have bought 2-3 Rafale’s.

I think you are talking about 2 squadrons.

 

[Pink Panther]

I think you are talking about 2 squadrons.

2 squadrons will cost $9-10Bln, we only spent $2.5Bln for Mirage upgrade.

 

[Baiju Bhaskaran]

2 squadrons will cost $9-10Bln, we only spent $2.5Bln for Mirage upgrade.

The cost of one Rafale in 2018 was 670 cores .So two squadrons of 36 aircraft will cost approximately 24000 cores which is slightly more than 2.5 Billion.

 

[Pink Panther]

The cost of one Rafale in 2018 was 670 cores .So two squadrons of 36 aircraft will cost approximately 24000 cores which is slightly more than 2.5 Billion.

may be Rafale F 0.5R or F1R not F3R and definitely not F4R.

 

[Baiju Bhaskaran]

may be Rafale F 0.5R or F1R not F3R and definitely not F4R.

I am talking about the Rafale version which was ordered in 2018 and now with IAF.

 

[Sentoki]

For context, the first Mirage2000-MK5 upgrade was completed in 2007. It took IAF 4 years to make a decision on upgrade and a further 13 years to do it. Fantastic. The upgrade is most likely already obsolete before it is even put to use....