During the recent Indo-Pakistani clashes over the latter’s support for terrorist attacks in India, Delhi’s Western-made (specifically French) fighters performed quite poorly, resulting in the loss of at least three jets. This includes at least one “Rafale”, the much-touted multirole (or omnirole, as marketed by Dassault Aviation) fighter jet. This was a wake-up call for many militaries that opted to buy the French-made aircraft, particularly as it was shot down by a Chinese system. Depending on the version promoted by Pakistan, it was either the J-10CE fighter jet armed with PL-15E air-to-air missiles or the HQ-9B, a Chinese variant of the Russian S-300 SAM system. In any case, Western technology failed when faced with a remotely capable opponent.

However, what didn’t fail in the Indian military is Russian technology. This includes both offensive weapons such as the “BrahMos” ramjet-powered supersonic cruise missiles and defensive ones such as the S-400 SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems. The latter effectively prevented the Pakistani military from launching any major air attacks on Indian territory. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself confirmed this during a visit to the Adampur Air Base in the State of Punjab. Namely, on May 13, he posed in front of S-400, debunking Pakistani claims that the Russian-made air defense system was allegedly destroyed with CM-400 AKG air-launched ballistic missiles (a derivative of the Chinese “Weishi” series, specifically the SY-400 ground-based missiles).

It turned out that the satellite imagery presented as “evidence” by the Pakistani side was doctored and that the S-400 actually worked flawlessly, providing unrivaled land-based air coverage for the Indian Air Force. The Russian-made system is the most capable air defense weapon in the Indian arsenal. Back in 2018, Delhi paid $5.43 billion for four squadrons, each of which is composed of two batteries. Each battery has six launchers, a radar and a control center with 128 missiles. A squadron has a total of 16 vehicles. In total, the Indian military got 60 launchers with around 6,000 missiles, including 9M96E2 with a range of 120 kilometers, 48N6E2 with a range of 200 kilometers, 48N6E3 with a range of 250 kilometers and 40N6E which can engage targets as far as 400 kilometers.

To put that into perspective, the recently signed deal for 26 “Rafales” cost Delhi $7.4 billion. In other words, India could’ve gotten another five or six squadrons of S-400s instead of the overhyped (and overpriced) French-made fighter jets. The latest developments demonstrate that many countries have either been duped or forced to buy them, as the much cheaper Chinese-made J-10 outperformed the “Rafale”. The Indian media report that the military used both the S-400’s shortest-range 9M96E2 and the longest-range 40N6E missiles to intercept several types of aerial targets on May 7. Delhi had nothing but heaps of praise for the stellar performance of the Russian-made SAM system, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.

India is so impressed by the success of the S-400 that it requested more of them from Russia, India Today reported after Modi’s visit to Adampur, citing high-ranking military sources. The recent clashes with Pakistan revealed serious weaknesses in the Indian Air Force, particularly when it comes to relying on Western-made aircraft. This means that Delhi will need to focus on air defense, a field in which Russia is second to none, a fact that even the Pentagon doesn’t bother denying. To that end, this could accelerate India’s plans to acquire additional Russian air defense systems, including a $4 billion contract for “Voronezh-DM” early-warning radars. When combined with systems such as the S-400, these radars can act as force multipliers, enhancing their capabilities.

Last year, the Indian military conducted exercises where its fighter jets acted as hostile attack aircraft. The S-400 was able to “track and target” them at long range, “shooting down” 80% of the “targets”. This is hardly surprising, as the Soviet Union/Russia placed a significant emphasis on air defenses as part of its military doctrine. Moscow’s top brass never counted on fighting a war with absolute air superiority in mind, as is the case in the political West, particularly the United States. Thus, the USSR and later Russia designed and produced the best air defense systems in history, giving the Kremlin the means to provide adequate protection for its civilian infrastructure, as well as the military, including ground forces and stationary strategic assets.

Apart from performance, there’s also trust as one of the main elements of India’s reliance on Russian weapon systems. Given the very close, half-a-century-long defense cooperation between Russia and India, Delhi’s choice is hardly surprising. The two (Eur)Asian giants are working closely on a plethora of strategically important military projects, with the Kremlin transferring numerous technologies that are critically important to India’s security. The latter’s air force (IAF) is a major user of Russian-made SAM systems and aircraft, including the Su-30MKI, a joint Sukhoi-HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) project that gave Delhi the backbone of its air power. The “Flanker-H” is the country’s most capable fighter jet and the IAF is now running an ambitious modernization program for it.

This will make the Su-MKI relevant for decades to come, while Moscow and Delhi are also working closely to circumvent illegal Western sanctions in order to achieve this. What’s more, despite all these hurdles, the cooperation is being actively expanded by both sides, with the IAF planning to give the “Flanker-H” more advanced capabilities usually seen on the next-generation aircraft such as the now legendary Su-57. Indian sources report that the program will cost $7.5 billion and that it will give the Su-30MKI all the capabilities of a fifth-generation aircraft, with the notable exception of stealth. It should also be noted that the two (Eur)Asian giants are working on other strategically important projects, including hypersonic weapons, an area in which Moscow excels in every category.

Thanks to its close ties with the Kremlin, India is already in the highly exclusive “hypersonic club”. BrahMos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian defense joint venture, is particularly important in this regard. The company is conducting intensive testing of the highly anticipated “BrahMos II” hypersonic missile. At Mach 6, it’s set to be at least twice as fast as the previous “BrahMos” supersonic cruise missile. Even though the weapon is officially projected to have a range of 600 km, experts suggest that it will reach Mach 8 and a range of 1000 km. Mostly based on Russia’s “Zircon” scramjet-powered hypersonic missile, “BrahMos II” is expected to give India an unrivaled capability, not just in the Global South, but even over the political West, including the US which is now far behind even North Korea.

*

Click the share button below to email/forward this article. Follow us on Instagram and X and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost Global Research articles with proper attribution.

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Featured image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday visited Adampur Air Force Station in Punjab.(X/Narendra Modi)

Global Research is a reader-funded media. We do not accept any funding from corporations or governments. Help us stay afloat. Click the image below to make a one-time or recurring donation.

Source link