IAF’s air-to-air missiles are faulty: Report

Last Updated: Thursday, July 16, 2009, 12:34

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IAF’s air-to-air missiles are faulty: Report

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: Nearly half of Indian Air Force’s beyond visual range (BVR) air-to-air missiles that were tested either did not home in on targets during evaluations or failed ground tests because they were ageing much before their shelf lives, a report claimed on Thursday.

As per the report by an leading English daily, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its yet to be released report has raised serious questions on the usability of the R 77 (RVV-AE) BVR missiles, each costing Rs 2 crore, which are fitted on board the Su-30 MKIs, MiG-29s and MiG-21 Bisons.

India has been procuring these missiles from Russia since 1996 and has even ordered for more than 2,000 missiles after the Kargil conflict out of which 1,000 have already been delivered.

The missiles failure has affected the “operational preparedness” of the IAF, the daily said quoting CAG report.

Moreover, just yesterday Defence Minister A K Antony had disclosed that there were structural problems with India’s lead fighter planes, the MiG-29.

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First Published: Thursday, July 16, 2009, 12:34

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MUNIQUE - bangalore
Relax folks. IAF has already zeroed in on the Israeli `Derby` air-to-air missile for the BVR role. This missile is already being tested by the Indian Navy on their Sea Harriers. The Derby missile is very easily compatible with all of IAF`s jets. Once the Indian Navy completes the tests, a combined order will be placed for both the Navy and the Airforce.

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King S - USA
India could use armed Zeppelin airships and have a better edge than some of the Russian ``junk`` it owns. It`s amazing how quick Russia has been to dump its most inferior technology onto India yet they have the nerve to demand more money. When is India going to learn. Stop buying ``white elephant`` hardware from Russia and go West? Ill keep waiting for more new episodes in this rather old saga. These are the ramification when you have a country like Russia run by the mafia. There is no accountability.

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BABUJI - UK
It is time India changed it`s partner in Arms. In the cold war days, India`s Non-Aligned stance had upset the West, namely US and India had to fall back heavily on Russia to provide Arms for it`s defence. They were comparatively cheap and the only country to support us. Now things are different. India has money and US and Europe are falling backwards for Arms trade with India. Their technology is more quality advanced and reliable. India should not compromise it`s security on unreliable arms from Russia as their quality,price and timely delivery has failed time and time again. India should buy the best,already tested and reliable Arms from leading countries to form a solid deterence.

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Vaman - Houston
Indian Government has always known about the unreliability of Russian weaponry and its fighter planes. Yet they keep going after using the same. Russia may provide weaponry cheaper, but they will dispense their useless machinary. IAF has to be careful now that China is bent upon teaching a lesson to India, it needs to be extremely careful in guarding the country.

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harkirat - nagpur
This is a serious issue to think whether there is another bofors like case or not shame on people who did that and supplied inferior defense material to our country

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sathish - seoul, korea
do we have any seriousness? it takes more than several hours for the NSG to reach the spot whether it was the hijacked plane when it was in amritsar or the more recent 26/11 attacks. over and above this, it is now said that the MIG 29 is faulty and the air-to-air missiles are not properly functioning! do we have to rely on israel everytime there is a conflict (kargil war was won with the help of israeli weapons)?