It is all about advanced avionics like ability to jam enemy radar and communications systems , while you attack their assets with satellite guided precise ammunitions even flying low at night. Ability to communicate and coordinate with other ground based and airborne assets like (AWACS). Ability to pickup and attack enemy fighters before they get into close or visual range (BVR) etc.. all integrated into a stable proven fighter aircraft. Dogfights are a thing of the past or very unlikely . In my opinion SU30MKI is good platform for deep strike , nuke delivery may be with Kh-55s etc.. but I think India is looking for 126 aircrafts to replace mig 21s so I think cheaper but modern is something India will go for.
RE:In modern combat aircraft
by Amit Mishra on Feb 09, 2007 09:27 AM Permalink
This is precisely the type of blunder that US had committed in making the F-4 Phantoms with limited dogfight capability & had paid dearly for it in the starting days of the Vietnam war. They had repeated the folly again when they ignored the WVR type missiles in favour of the BVRAAM ones. The result was that USSR leapfrogged ahed in 1986 with the uneiling of the Vympel R-73 the first of the fourth generation WVRAAM missile the west had to work hard with only the Israelis unveiling the Python in 1994. theb US & European companies are barely catching up. In a simulation run by the US agencies on their Cray computers, Su-27/30s & the Mig-29s( those equipped with Vympel R-73s & thrust-vectoring engines) could easily shoot down F-15s, F-16s & F-18s!!! So much so for the US tech!!! The other folly in buying US aircraft would be that we would have to ask for their permission in going to war!!! Morever Pakistani pilots having a 20 yr lead in using the US tech F-16s would have a trick or two more up their sleeve!!!
