Su-30 hunting: India will show the Japanese how to fight Russian fighters
Su-30MKI of the Indian Air Force. Source: dambiev.livejournal.com
India and Japan - brothers forever
You can't live alone in our world.
All around against someone unite in order to achieve their rightfully strong. One of the typical examples of modernity can be considered the Indo-Pacific “neoplasm” “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue”. This alliance, also referred to as the "Security Diamond", includes anti-Chinese countries - the United States, India, Japan and Australia.
The originator of all storiesNaturally, Washington is acting, which is financially unable to cope with Beijing's military control. Not only does the PRC promise to return Taiwan in the coming years, but also the transport routes from the Middle East to Southeast Asia are gradually coming under Chinese control. With a certain degree of certainty, the "Security Diamond" can be called an analogue of NATO, only with much greater potential.
Despite the incompletely formalized rules of the game inside the "Quad", new countries are invited to the union. We are ready to consider the participation of Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam in this military-political bloc.
Illustration for the Indo-Pacific Confrontation. Source: maritimeindia.org
Any military blocs in which they are "friends" against common enemies cannot do without exercises. In the case of anti-Chinese history, these are the annual Malabar naval maneuvers. Last year, the Indians exhibited their only aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, with MiG-29K carrier-based fighters. Actually, even then, participants in naval maneuvers from Japan, the United States and Australia could “try it out” Russian-made machines.
But the real excitement was caused by the upcoming joint exercises of fighter pilots from India and Japan, during which interaction with the Su-30MKI will be worked out. Simply put, the Japanese F-15 and F-2 will work out the destruction of the Sukhoi design bureau. The Japanese Komatsu base in Ishikawa Prefecture and the Hyakuri base in Ibaraki Prefecture were chosen as the training ground.
For Indians, this is not a momentary decision - the exercises were planned for a long time and would have taken place if not for the pandemic. Maneuvering fighters on airplanes of different designs, and even more so from different countries, is a very difficult matter. Fighter aviation in itself a very risky branch of the air force, and then there are air battles between the Japanese and the Indians. That is why the upcoming exercises preceded military transport aviation maneuvers in December 2018. The Japanese transferred the transport Kawasaki C-2 to India, and the host presented the C-17 Globemaster. The organizers practiced interaction not only in the air, but also on the ground infrastructure. A year later, a C-130 Hercules flew from Japan to India for another exercise.
"Dry" in Japan
According to Japanese sources, the exercises of Japanese-Indian fighters must necessarily take place before the end of the year.
At the same time, the initiative to use the Su-30MKI (India has enough machines from other manufacturers) comes from the Japanese side. The main scenario of maneuvers is that groups of planes attack Japanese targets from the west, that is, attacks by Russia or China are being played out.
The PRC is armed with nearly a hundred Su-30 aircraft, which the local Air Force is actively using near the Japanese islands. India has long been in a state of confrontation with China, occasionally turning into a hot phase. Beijing has recently been building up not only traditional types of weapons, but also expanding its nuclear potential. Some satellite photos of new silo-based missile positioning areas are worth something. So they are preparing in India as best they can, including informing the allies about the potential of the Chinese weapons.
It is expected that the Japanese will be able to prepare in detail for repelling the invasion on machines of the Su-30 type, as well as practice aerial combat techniques. It is possible that photographs of Japanese pilots in the seats of Indian-Russian aircraft will appear on the Internet.
Top-level Japanese technique. Source: regnum.ru
In the Indian Air Force, there are 272 Su-30MKI multirole fighters, the origin of which can hardly be called purely Russian. Moscow and Delhi have a multimillion-dollar contract for the licensed assembly of cars at the facilities of the Indian company HAL, the last of which left the stocks in February 2021.
It is worth recalling separately that the Su-30MKI can carry supersonic BrahMos missiles, which multiplies the combat capabilities of the vehicle.
According to the plans of exercises with the Japanese, up to 6 aircraft of the Su-30 series are to fly to the islands. Tokyo is definitely the winner, receiving unique information about the equipment of potential adversaries - China and Russia. For Delhi, this move is rather a political one - they say that we have found an ally within the framework of the "Quad" and are ready to further integrate into the anti-Chinese confrontation.
India does not think about reputational losses - Moscow will never refuse to supply weapons (including aircraft) to such a bottomless market. As soon as Russia curtails cooperation, others will immediately take their place. But this may spur China to further develop home-grown military technologies - after all, it is not very productive to reveal its cards through third and not the most friendly countries.
Moscow, by the way, may be on the losing side. And not because of the disclosure of technical secrets - the machines are export, and not from the combat units of the Russian Air Force. It's all about "sober pragmatism", when the Russian defense industry manages to sell weapons to its partners, many of whom are at enmity with each other. For example, Armenia and Azerbaijan, India and China. There is nothing to be done, most of these states pay for military orders with "real" money, and not with Moscow loans, as, for example, Venezuela.
Su-30MKI / SM, in general, is almost the most demanded combat aircraft in its class in the world. It's a sin not to sell it, and even with a decent margin. The price for this is such situations when Russian equipment becomes a bargaining chip in the military-political games of third countries. It is possible that something similar will be seen in the future with the Turkish S-400 regiment.
Aside from the political component of Indian attacks, the Japanese side will at least not be ashamed of the Su-30MKI. The entire line of Sukhoi vehicles is head and shoulders above the F-15.
In addition, many people still have heard of the Exercise Indradhanush IV exercise, when Indian pilots on the Su-30MKI utterly defeated the British Eurofighter FGR4. This happened in 2015 and seriously upset the British Air Force, although they admitted defeat with great conventions.
In one of the training battles in the sky, the Su-30 conditionally hit two Eurofighters at once. As a result, the score is 12: 0 in favor of Indian fighters. In their defense, the British recognized the overwhelming advantage of the Su aircraft in close combat due to their super-maneuverability, but stated that at long distances the advantage would have happened to the British technology.
At what ranges they will study the capabilities of the Su-30MKI in Japan is still silent. It seems that the samurai will not miss their chance and will fight both in the conditions of a "dagger fight" and within the reach of weapons.
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