"Military And Military Sub-Plane" by Zi Dian
Indian-made aircraft have long been the laughing stock in the eyes of military fans. Due to poor quality control and poor maintenance, the Indian Air Force's plane crashes are no longer news. However, India itself feels good about itself and continues to recommend its aircraft to the international arms market.
▲ India's Polaris helicopter crashed at the Ecuadorian military parade
A few years ago, the unbelieving Ecuador once purchased 7 Indian-made "Polaris" helicopters and used them as presidential planes. As a result, 4 of the 7 helicopters crashed due to malfunction, and even the presidential plane fell. Fortunately, the president was not on the plane at that time, otherwise something big would have happened.
Logically, such an aircraft must have been bought by no one. But just some time ago, there was a sudden news on the Chinese Internet: the Malaysian Air Force is ready to purchase India's LCA "Radiance" fighter jet, becoming the first foreign user of LCA! Aren't all Malaysian pilots afraid of falling?
Indian media, is the news reliable?
It just so happens that Junwu mushrooms know a Malaysian military fan friend, but "unfortunately" this friend has searched all over malaysia's domestic media and has not found the source of this news, but has found a lot of Chinese media reports. Could it be that this is fake news?
▲Relevant reports of indian media
In fact, this news is not false, but it was first announced by the Indian media, and there was no relevant news from the Malaysian side. Subsequently, these news were reprinted and published by the domestic media. As for the credibility of the Indian media, I believe that everyone has a number in mind, and the military mushrooms do not need to say much.
Moreover, the earliest exact report that militarists can find only say that Malaysia sent a delegation to India at the end of June this year to discuss specific plans for the procurement of LCA. In other words, it is just the beginning of the discussion, I am afraid that even the champagne at half time is not counted. The whole news, I'm afraid, is completely self-deprecating by the Indian media.
But what is certain is that the Malaysian Air Force does have a lot of interest in the LCA "brilliance", and this news is not completely fabricated. Perhaps Malaysia has not yet finalized the contract, but it has also begun to promote related work. Is "Radiance" really going to sell?
LCA "beat" JF-17?
When reporting on this matter, many Indian media highlighted the information of LCA and JF-17 "Dragon Dragon" bidding, and compared LCA and Dragon Dragon, it vaguely revealed a kind of information: LCA can "beat" Dragon Dragon in the bidding because LCA has better performance. But is that really the case?
▲LCA "Brilliance" at the Air Show
First, let's take a look at the Malaysian Air Force's Light Fighter (LCA) program. In 2019, the Malaysian Air Force is poised to procure an inexpensive light multi-role fighter to serve as a complement to the multi-role fighter and for trainer aircraft use. Also called LCA, from the name alone, "Brilliance" is really a great advantage.
▲Boeing T-7 trainer aircraft
The bidding companies are diverse, including South Korea's F/A-50, Italy's M-346, India's LCA, Russia's MiG-35 and Yak-130, China's JF-17 and Coach-10, the United States' Boeing T-7, the Czech Republic's L-39NG, and even Turkey has come up with its own bidding scheme "Jet Freedom Bird".
▲ MiG-35 fighter
Although there are many bidders, there are quite few players who can persist to the end, and many planes just come to show their faces. By 2020, most of the participating models have been eliminated, leaving only the F/A-50, LCA and JF-17 to continue testing.
▲Korean T-50 trainer aircraft
In fact, from the models participating in the bidding, it can be seen that the Malaysian Air Force does not need a very advanced aircraft, but a low-cost, large-scale procurement of equipment, and a variety of functions at the same time. In fact, modern advanced trainers can meet these needs.
Only buy the right ones, not the expensive ones
Behind any procurement plan for weapons and equipment is inseparable from the actual needs of a country and an army. Putting aside these discussions about arms purchases, that is nonsense. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the current situation of the Malaysian Air Force.
▲The Su-30MKM equipped by the Malaysian Air Force
The Malaysian Air Force is not a formidable air force, and in the face of its main imaginary enemy, Singapore, the Malaysian Air Force can only be described as backward. Currently, the Malaysian Air Force has only 16 Su-30MKM, 8 F/A-18D and 12 BAE Hawker trainers in service, with another 16 MiG-29s in reserve.
F/A-18D equipped by the Malaysian Air Force
Although the Su-30 fighter is the main force, in general, the equipment of the Malaysian Air Force is more inclined to the West. Perhaps because Russian-made fighters do not adapt to the hot and humid climate of Southeast Asia, the Su-30's attendance rate is not high, while the MiG-29 is in worse condition, and the engine often fails, so that the Malaysian Air Force can't bear to retire it. In the future, the main fighters of the Malaysian Air Force will be mainly the purchased second-hand F/A-18 series, supplemented by su-30s, and the LCA of this bidding will be purchased as a supplement to these two expensive fighters.
The MiG-29, which is equipped by the Malaysian Air Force, is now retired
In this context, Malaysia's choice is understandable. Malaysia is not a rich country, and the development of weapons and equipment is greatly limited by economic conditions, so it is difficult to buy those expensive advanced fighters in large quantities. Although Russia has given a lot of preferential sales to the MiG-35, the MiG-29 has been deeply hated by the Malaysian Air Force, so this advanced fighter improved from the MiG-29 is not surprisingly out.
▲ The JF-17 fighter uses the MiG-29 "same" engine
The situation is similar to the JF-17, which is also not optimistic about the Air Force since the JF-17 uses an RD-93 engine, which is also an engine modified from the MiG-29 and is also a single-engine design. But even in this "congenital deficiency" situation, JF-17 has successfully squeezed into the top three, and Junwu bacteria feel that this has been able to prove the excellence of the dragon.
The engine of the L-15 trainer is "out of print"
In addition, there is a hapless player - the L-15, or Coach-10, this advanced trainer aircraft is equipped with a Ukrainian-made AI-222 engine, which is now out of print! Although there are still many stocks of such engines in China, and they are also trying to replace domestic engines, in the short term, exports must be unthinkable.
▲The Korean F/A-50 is a hot model in the international market in recent years
The other two finalists have the same advantage: the F/A-50 and LCA both use American F-404 engines, which are in line with the future main F/A-18 model of the Malaysian Air Force, which is obviously conducive to the logistics supply and maintenance of the Malaysian Air Force. Compared with the F/A-50 from the trainer, the LCA is a special fighter after all, and it has certain advantages in performance.
The F/A-18, Tejas and F/A-50 all use American GM F404 engines
Finally, the LCA is likely to be one of the cheapest models in this competition. According to Indian media reports, the purchase price of LCA is only $38 million. Although the prices of the other bidders are not disclosed, the unit price of the JF-17 is certainly not cheap with reference to the $180 million order in Nigeria for three JF-17s, and the lowest price of the F/A-50 is comparable to the LCA. In this way, it is not strange that Malaysia really purchases LCA.
One dares to buy, one dares to sell
Since Malaysia's requirements for such aircraft are not high, the performance of the LCA should be no problem, and the price is cheap enough. But even without considering the quality of Hindustan's products, LCA has a major problem: capacity.
▲Guanghui has been developed for more than 40 years, and so far few have not been built
In order to feed India's homegrown aviation industry, the Indian Air Force has procured 123 LCA fighters, but only 32 have actually been delivered to the troops since mass production in 2012, and orders for more than 100 have been scheduled for 2030. Although the number of purchases in Malaysia is not large, only about 30 aircraft, it is close to the sum of LCA prototypes and mass production models.
▲ When India marketed LCA, it did not consider the production problem at all
How is Hindustan Airlines ready to deliver such an order? I'm afraid they haven't thought about it themselves. In fact, in recent years, India has desperately marketed LCA fighters, and even run to the US Navy to sell them, completely disregarding the feasibility of the program and the production delivery process, just like a joke.
▲This year, the plane is also the same as the graphics card, selling air?
Although the purchase of weapons and equipment should be decided according to the actual situation of the country, no country is willing to buy air. No matter how cheap your plane is, you just can't pay the goods, who wants to buy it? From this point of view, the military mushrooms feel that as long as the Malaysian Air Force can understand this and recognize the strength of India's aviation industry, it will not covet cheap LCA, and purchasing F/A-50 is a better choice.
▲ Brilliance, how good the name is, the final result is bleak, and now I suggest that it be renamed bleak
But who can say for sure about these small countries? If Malaysia really dares to buy LCA, I am afraid that in a few years, we will be able to see the angry Malaysian Air Force on the news asking the Indians to "refund the money".