I took out some time from my studies to write my thoughts as to wutwill PAF's possible answer be to MRCA, i have analysed all the optionsone by one, availabe to PAF from my point of view, so here it goes.
1. IAF goes for F-18 SuperHornet
The aircraft will give IAF a big boost in stirke roles as they will nowget one the best proven fighter of the US Airforce (just look at thedifferent types of weapons it can carry), but the biggest drawback isthat they would have to set up all new infrastructure to handle thisaircraft, which will surely take lots of time, one of the biggestproblem will also come in managing all the different Russian n Americanaircraft's at once. The aircraft is pricey no doubt about that but ifthis plane is bought the tender will easily jump from $10 Billion to$15 Billion because of the weapons that will be bought separately andtraining n everythin else needed with the aircrafts, US is solelysellin this plane cause it wants to counter China's growing influencein the region n the world by using India as a pawn on the chessboard,the biggest set back for India will be when US in the future bans allexports of spares for these planes to India, when it is done withChina, as was the case with our F-16's when cold war ended, then afterexport bans for spares India will have to pay a big price in the blackmarkets, initially the order will be for 126 aircraft but, I'm prettysure they will exercise the remaining option for 74 aircraft whichwould bring the total number of F-18's to 200 in IAF.
2. Buy some real kick *** fighter like the next generation F-15E StrikeEagle, "The F-15 family of aircraft has a perfect air-combat record ofmore than 100 victories and zero defeats" (greater than F-16's) (3squadrons of these aircraft would be enough to counter the F-18threat), or if PAF doesnot want to go American way they should go forRafale, a very capable n proven fighter, the sale of the aircraftcannot be blocked like the F-15's by the American congress(again 3squadrons) or the Eurofighter which is an air superiority fighter, iknow its expensive but it will keep IAF away as they will know that PAFoperates it n it is not the machine, it is the man behind the machinewhich is the real face of victory but none the less both play animportant role in the success of the mission, n Alhamdulillah ourPilots r the best in the world. I would suggest PAF not to buy anymoreF-16's cause we have had enough with F-16's buy somethin else now,whose technology could be used to further improve our JF-17 n possiblyJ-10's. Guys, one more thing, if we go for F-15E stike eagles they willhave "A Service life that will allow it to be viable until at least2035", n we know how capable this fighter is, it will be a big punch inSu-30's face n even F-18's. Wut ever aircraft PAF puchases to counterthe MRCA threat in the future it should not be a sinlge engine aircraft.
Possible PAF's response to this scenario.
Well, PAF know's that this aircraft is very capable, wut I think PAFshould do in this scenario is, it should adopt different alternativesto counter this threat which includes:
1. Buy real kick *** MEADS battery with Patriot's in them, which willkeep the F-18's, Su-30, n all the rest of our rivals aircraft out ofPAK airspace, they will not even think to come near cause Patriot is aproven hit-to-kill SAM n it never misses it's target no matter wut, nthey will know this. In my view PAF shuld buy atleast 15 of thesebatteries which would be used with our radars and erieye's. SAM systemsr cheaper than fighter aircraft's so they can be deployed in PAK inlarge numbers. This will also give us defence against the russian madebrahmos cruise missile n their Ballistic missiles.
In my view PAF should go for a mix of the above 2 options buy MEADS SAMbatteries n buy 3 squadrons of one of the 3 twin engine planesmentioned above. This in view would be the best reply to F-18SuperHornets as the possible MRCA winner. We donot have anyproblem withfinances, we can ask Saudi's to fund our purchase or anyone else who isa trusted and time tested friend of our Proud Nation.
Anyway, guys my time is over now I've to start revisin for my examswhich r after 2 weeks from now, i would conduct my analysis on F-16's npost it tommorow in this thread but guys who ever reads this pleasereply to i
