Does the stealth shaping have a big impact compared to the more conventional Scorpene design?
I don't really see the need for this when India is already building Scorpenes. Why not continue with the advanced Scorpene design with Indian AIP? You already have a SSN program. The excess money...
With more countries going with Li ion battery submarines are AIPs still necessary? From what I can remember the Japanese switched to Li ion because AIPs don't give enough power for high speed maneuvers so they didn't think the extra endurance from AIP was tactically useful.
The performance for scorpene evolved should be good from what France has shown and India already has built 6 scorpenes so there is synergy there. Maybe your 6 scorpene can also be upgraded to scorpene evolved?
Might make sense to give the Su-30s some strike capabilities. Maybe for surprise attacks from long range with targeting data supplied by drones? Su-30 doesn't have the EW capabilities of Rafale and it has a big RCS so can only be used in certain situations.
I still rather the Su-30 be gradually...
Having to wait on Russia for all testing must also delay the program significantly. Maybe they just don't have the capital budget allocated to the program for a testbad aircraft as opposed to flight testing fees which are more spread out?
Why is the Indian navy so insistent about AIP instead of going with fully LiB Scorpène Evolved from France? Japan is also moving towards fully LiB submarines instead of AIP.
Is the Indian Navy requirements much different from Indonesia and France...
Rafale with Storm Shadow is good enough for now. I think only the US, Russia and China have dedicated naval bombers.
However something like China's 200+ Xi'an H-6 is a very serious capability in a war.
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2024/03/the-netherlands-select-naval-group-for-its-new-submarines/
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2023/12/naval-group-offering-barracuda-family-submarine-to-the-netherlands/
"It is an exceptionally quiet, ocean-going submarine that has the same...
Going for more Rafale instead of F-15 may actually be better. It is much more cost effective to order more of the same type of fighter. You get economies of scale and easier logistics. This is the reason the French designed the Rafale as a multirole fighter to meet all their needs from air...
The Rafale has been surprisingly dominant against the Eurofighter and American 4.5 gen fighters in competitions recently.
This is despite it on paper not really being a standout in performance against other western 4.5 gen fighters.
I guess the French all round package is just very well put...
There is a decent argument for fully Li-ion subs like Japan vs the AIP + Li-ion subs from Korea. We aren't looking to launch SLBMs like Korea and the extra power from fully Li-ion might be better than the longer fully submerged duration of AIP.
Don't underestimate the Koreans. Their defence industry is world class. Just look at K2 Black Panther tank and the KSS-III submarine.
They also had help from Lockheed Martin.
We should be buying more of these instead of Rafale or F-15s. It makes sense to wait a few years to get a 5th gen fighter that will be relevant for decades to come.
The Rafale and F15 will quickly be come obsolete as more 5th gen fighters are deployed. I do not want to be facing J20s or F35s...
The US isn't going anywhere. It has the best geography of any country in history and the best demographics of any major power. What is more likely is that instead of a unipolar world there will be a multipolar world with the US and China as two poles.
Also unlike China which has a unified Han...
A ground operation would be very costly. The best action militarily would be just using the IAF for WW2 style aerial bombings. Hamas has limited air defences so there would be very little risk for Israel.
The response so far has been much more muted than I expected as well. I've seen maybe four buildings destroyed. Not anything different from what Israel normally does.
The IAF has the capabilities to absolutely level Hamas with WW2 style bombings if it really wanted too.
Yes. Israel's has one of the most advanced and capable Air Forces in the world. Hamas has no defence against that. This attack just gives Israel free reign to carry out air strikes and level any building they want.
