IAF Nears Completion of Mirage 2000 Upgrade Program Despite Challenges

[Sandeep]

I have been writing it for a long time.
India spent almost $2.5+ billions of dollars on on Mirage-2000 upgrade.
India spent $1.2 billions on Mica missile with a range of 60 to 80 kms.
India wasted $$3.6+ billions upgrading them.

Now let us say the terroristan PAF sends its AESA radar equipped F-16s with AMRAAMs and Jf-17s with chinese long range BVRAAMs to attack Gwalior airbase or some other base where Mirage-2000UPGs are stationed,/
Can Mirage-2000UPGs take off and fight them at all?
F-16s and JF-17s can see Mirage-2000UPG and shoot them out of the sky.

Mirage-2000UPGs can't even see AESA PAF fighters, only our AWACS can see them.Mirage 2000UPG can't go to war without the big brothers SU-30MKIs and Rafale watching and protecting them. Get real.

I may get lot of flak from the French Bakts but I know a thing of two about CONOPS so I wrote.

I love my motherland, but I must be blunt in saying Mirage-2000 days are over long ago and no one wanted to bother to upgrade them at all and trying to sell.

I do not know who in the IAF, MoD, and GoI are responsible for it, but they must all be held accountable for endangering national security and defenses.

The people responsible are the corrupt jihadi party who received massive commissions

 

[Anant]

While there is no doubt that this was a disappointing cycle - can we use this experience to modernize, say 50% of the 24 French used Mirage 2000 + 18 to-be-purchased Greek Mirage 2000 ?

We can easily add another squadron of modernized Mirage 2000 and if we are really serious, maybe add the 12 Qatar Mirage 2000 that are now in the market, given that Indonesia has rejected them and add 2 more squadrons of modernized Mirage 2000?

We can modernise 33% of the 24 French Mirage 2000s we purchased, since 8 of them are flyable. Another 5 are intact but are near the end of their airframe life, meaning that unless necessary, we probably won't invest to extend their life. As of now, those 5 are acting as instructional airframes on the ground. The remaining 11 are used for spares.

We can definitely use this experience to modernise those 8 Mirages plus 10 or so from the 18 Greek Mirages that they are offering. That would make for an extra squadron.

I am not sure on the feasibility of buying the Qatari Mirages. On one hand, they are already at the 2000-5 standard, which means they are already mostly modernised and have relatively few hours on the airframes. On the other hand, they will be fairly expensive. If we match Indonesia's offer, that would mean about 800 million dollars. Still, with a few more Mirages being procured from France or the UAE, that will allow us a fifth Mirage 2000 squadron (against the present number of 3).

 

[Dredd]

HAL is incapable of doing anything easily and tends to unnecessarily complicate everything. The last time their modernized Mirage flew, it crashed killing the pilot. So no HAL simply is incapable of doing any upgrades safely in independent of OEM support.

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.

 

[Sandeep]

India should of scrapped this upgrade and should of bought the Rafale jets instead. Unfortunately the corrupt jihadi party wanted to earn money by harming national security. Another issue is that because of the delay in Tejas 2 the chance of having to buy other Mirage jets for spare parts or upgrading used Mirage jets to add to squadron strengths will cost a lot more. If India wants to add more squadrons in a short space of time because of the delays by HAL then it's best to just buy those brand new Mig 29 or Sukhoi 30 jets from Russia at throwaway prices.

Another option could be in leasing some Rafale jets from France as they have offered that option to other countries. That's the best option that India could get without buying $20 billion worth of brand new Rafale jets which is just unaffordable. We should lease them until we induct more Tejas MK1A and Tejas MK2 jets to build up our squadron strength.

 

[Ashutosh]

You want to summon Akshat and his french lobbyist???

He would disappear now

 

[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....