Posted on 11/03/2010 8:30:24 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Indian air chief dismisses UK’s ‘iffy’ Harriers
By James Lamont in Kalaikunda and Alex Barker in London
Britain has hit an early obstacle in its bid to sell its fleet of Harrier jump jets after India, the most promising potential buyer, described the aircraft as “iffy” and obsolete.
Air Chief Marshall PV Naik, the head of the Indian Air Force, said on Tuesday he would be looking to acquire modern aircraft of fourth-generation capabilities or better. “The Harrier doesn’t fit into that category,” the Air Chief Marshall said.
His dismissive remarks over the “iffy” Harrier came soon after Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, the chief of the UK air staff, acknowledged the possibility of a sale while paying a visit to India to boost military co-operation and exports.
India is one of the largest arms bazaars in the world and is seeking to modernise its aging, largely Russian-supplied airforce, to face threats from Pakistan and China.
The distinct lack of interest shown in the Harrier, which was decommissioned in the defence review primarily on grounds of cost, will be a blow to ministers who are seeking to generate some much-needed revenue from the disposal.
Air Chief Mashall Naik’s words will particularly sting because the Ministry of Defence has spent more than £500m upgrading the Harrier avionics over the last five years and the jets could potentially remain in service until the mid 2020s.
Peter Luff, defence procurement minister, told the Financial Times this week that he was hopeful of finding a buyer for the Harrier, the
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
and, im sorry, refresh my memory....what sort of giant leaps forward has the indian military come up with????
Well buying a used subsonic attack aircraft with no radar is not exactly very enticing for most militaries.
That's gotta hurt.
In all fairness, it's more than 40 years old, and was the first generation of it's type. Well, OK, second maybe. First generation that made it to operational status.
correction: which was decommissioned in the defence review by the RAF because they wanted to screw the Royal Navy
The British government is bit too optimistic if it thinks it can hawk the GR.9 Harriers. The only Harriers to win export orders are the Sea Harrier and US-built AV-8 A/Bs. Both types had radars and could hope to survive air to air combat.
CASH, and lots of it! With enough cash, a fast developing nation like India can purchase modern weaponry from dying nations that are too broke to field it themselves.
Once-great Britain is like a sad old whore discovering that the market value of her worn out body ain't what it used to be.
Wrong. The GR9s and GR9As being decommissioned are all Harrier IIs. Both were upgrades to the GR7 which achieved IOC in August of 1995. The first generation Harrier achieved IOC in April of 1969.
Not to mention limited range and weapons payload. Their only operational advantage is the ability to operate from primitive airfields ( or small ships) with higher airspeeds than helicopters.
I think the primary disadvantage here is cost-effectiveness. These GR.9s are pretty sophisticated as far as electronics go and their range/payloads exceeds that of the Mig-21/23/27 and almost matches that of aircraft such as the Mirage-V and Jaguar.
How much experience do you have serving in a Harrier squadron?
Absolutely none, I’m afraid, just voicing my opinions. I guess that means you’re going to criticise my comments that since I’ve never served in a Harrier unit my opinion isn’t worth very much. Maybe you’re right but it doesn’t look like the Indian Air Force is interested in buying the used Harriers.
The Harriers seemed to have survived extensive air to air combat in the Falklands War.
The Harriers which did all of the air to air damage in the Falklands were the Sea Harriers of the Royal Navy, which were air defense fighters. The Harriers referred to here are RAF variabnts.
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