Posted on 01/01/2008 9:22:39 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
To protect Sukhoi secrets, IAF will switch off radars during exercise
Manu Pubby
Friday, December 28, 2007 at 0000 hrs
New Delhi, December 27: India’s defence ties with the US may be reaching new heights, but the Air Force is keen to protect the secrets of its latest fighting machine, the Su 30MKI, from probing eyes during the high profile ‘Red Flag’ exercise scheduled to take place at the Nellis airbase in US in August next year.
The Air Force is sending six Su 30s for the prestigious exercise — the first time the latest fighter from the Russian stable will visit North America — but has decided to keep the aircraft’s classified NO11M BARS radar switched off during the entire war game.
While alternative arrangements are being made to ensure that the performance of the fighters at the “world’s toughest aerial combat training exercise” does not get compromised, the IAF top brass is clear that the secret frequencies used by the BARS radar to track enemy targets and launch offensive weapons should not be exposed.
“The radar frequencies are top secret as they can be used to block vital functions of the fighter. While we have a good equation with the US, we have to be careful about the future,” a senior IAF officer said.
Perhaps, the IAF has not yet recovered from its experience at the Indra Dhanush exercise in UK earlier this year, where US and UK spy planes tried to snoop on the Su 30 MKI’s radar.
According to some reports, a US Air Force RC-135U electronic spy plane and a UK Air Force BAC 111 test plane equipped with radar detecting gear were snooping around the Waddington airbase during the two-week war game. However, the BARS radar was switched off during that exercise too.
Also, Russia is keen to protect the frequencies of its radar as it has just started getting global orders for the Su 30. “There are IPR related issues too as Russia would not want its radar frequencies to be revealed,” the IAF officer said.
The US is specially interested in the BARS radar as the Su 30s are becoming the mainstay fighter of the Chinese Air Force too.
Yeah I know that but I love looking for people that think Hollywood just uses copies of our test aircraft in its movies.
I believe it’s from the movie “Stealth.”
That’s the “FA-37 Talon” from the forgettable movie “STEALTH”.
“On another forum I was concerned that we should not build a huge inventory of F-22s because a cheaper weapons platform can get the job done just as well. I would think an unmanned fighter aircraft could do a better job.”
I agree. The “official” version is that there’ll be no unmanned fighters until at least 2032. I hope there’s a black program similar to the way the F-117 program worked. I think with on-station “supervision” unmanned fighters could be effective in a wide range of scenarios. They could be fully autonomous in a lot of wartime situations.
Right. If you don’t train with your equipment, what good is it?
That’s why I don’t buy the idea we have not intercepted and analyzed emissions from this radar. Imagine how determined we must have been to get ELINT on a new Russian fighter radar.
The Indians may not believe so, but that’s fine.
I concur especially since we appear to have an ample supply of “Nintendo” pilots to fill the ranks.
You need to know how well all the modes of this thing work out as well as how good it’s defensive capabilities are-standard ELINT missions may not be enough .Playing upclose in realistic exercises are one way to find out more.
About not training with your equipment,well the Russians have imposed a restriction on not using it with the Yankees-not on using it at all.This is pretty common in East-West exchanges.Israeli UAVs operated by India were not shown to visiting Russian personnel keeping in mind Israeli sensitivities.
Seriously, how do the Indians expect to play with US pilots without using radar? I don’t think they want to come over here and get completely “dogged”. My guess is they will transmit but maybe not the more specialized or unique modes.
The Russians may have restrictions on the Indians but the Indians aren’t very happy with the Russians business practices.
It’s not whether the Indians like the Russians or not-India will be dependent on the Russians for atleast the 20 years in a big way for it’s purchases.
About what the SU-30 pilots will do-good question.I hardly believe that any airforce will put out it’s entire range of tricks for display(irrespective of how good they are).Red Flag is a multi-national exercise with a range of scenarios,so Indian pilots won’t be taking on American pilots in the real sense.
Well .. they have it labeled as the F-35 - weird!
Well .. I thought it looked different .. because I was watching the History channel recently, and they were doing a story on the Raptor and the F-35 - it was very interesting.
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