Indian airforce loses half its planes

whydave

According to India's defence minister AK Anthony 482 had crashed, killing 171 air force pilots since the country began buying MiG jets in 1966. The incidents had killed 218 people including civilians.

Critics said the figures raised questions over why India had continued using the fighter jets and described them as "flying coffins." The high number of crashes was attributed to "human error" and technical difficulties." Many different MiG models remain in service in the Indian Air Force, but some, like the MiG 21, are being phased out because of its poor record.

more here

xflyer

A cynic might suggest that it would cost less lives but be more expensive if they crashed a lot of western aircraft. The reality is that fast jets crash a lot. Even if flown with the greatest of circumspect.

pclancy

Considering somewhere near 40% of the Indian polulation live below the poverty line I think its madness they invest so much in their military.

westdub

This is just a normal loss rate for a fairly large air force operating fast jets during the 60s-70s...Losses in military aircraft in the cold war period were very high due to the amount of aircraft being operated ... Check out the loss rate for the F-104 alone....

During its period of service with the German armed forces, about 270 German Starfighters were lost in accidents, just under 30 percent of the total force. About 110 pilots were killed. However, the attrition rate in German service was not all that much greater than that of the F-104 in service with several other air forces, including the United States Air Force. Canada had the unenviable record of losing over 50 percent of its 200 single-seat CF-104s in flying accidents

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/f104_17.html

Ellis Dee

pclancy wrote: »

Considering somewhere near 40% of the Indian polulation live below the poverty line I think its madness they invest so much in their military.

"Madness"? Look at a map and note that they have China (which invaded in 1962 and was just barely stopped) on their northern border and Pakistan, an unstable and likewise nuclear-armed sworn enemy with which they have fought four wars) on their western side. It would be real madness not to defend the country properly.:rolleyes:

Besides, the Indian defence budget is less than a tenth that of the USA and also a small fraction of China's and works out at around €24 per capita and annum. Much of it is spent in India on pay and provides hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs.:)

Stovepipe

Hi all,
India actually improved the survival rate of it's MiG-21s by increasing the overhaul life of it's engines, which were around 2-300 hours for Russian-made engines to about 500 hours for Indian-made and overhauled engines. They also improved the build quality, ejection seats, avionics, pilot training, engineer training, overhaul facilities, etc,etc and really don't have an exceptional accident rate. The country has a first-class aerospace industry, besides.

regards
Stovepipe

Tenger

pclancy wrote: »

Considering somewhere near 40% of the Indian polulation live below the poverty line I think its madness they invest so much in their military.

Well as mentioned above they do have Pakistan and China as neighbours and have had at least 4 shooting wars since independence, not to mention that ongoing artillery duels along the Kashmir border.


Here is an interesting breakdown of military spending, some surprising figures:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/01/information-is-beautiful-military-spending


They have the 10th largest military budget in the World (2008 figures)
They have the 3rd largest standing army (1.3m troops, China=2.1 USA 1.4M)

But when you look at military budget as % of GDP, or military service per 100.000 of population India falls out of the top numbers. (As does the USA ands UK)

basill

Blame the Brits, they redrew the map. In fact you could blame them for most of the worlds current ills. The yanks being a very young country missed out on all of the fun of colonialisation.

pclancy

I'm aware of the size of their military buidget. Insanity in my view. Feed your people before you fly around playing with boys toys or building carriers etc. China arent planning to invade any nuclear armed country soon. The poverty and desperation on the streets is beyond beleif yet they feel the need to prance around in the skies holding wargames as if they're on the same level as their once colonial masters.

Walk down a station platform at night in India and tell the hundreds of people you walk over that sleep there where their governments rupees should be spent. Third world coluntries need to get their people sorted first before their military.

longhalloween

basill wrote: »

The yanks being a very young country missed out on all of the fun of colonialisation.

That's because they were colonised by the English and Dutch.

Stovepipe

@pclancy, you're preaching to the converted. If you have a country whose entire population is based on a finely tuned layer system that discriminates vertically and in which each higher layer regards the layer below them as scum, then the country will never change.

regards
Stovepipe

eatmyshorts

westdub wrote: »

This is just a normal loss rate for a fairly large air force operating fast jets during the 60s-70s...Losses in military aircraft in the cold war period were very high due to the amount of aircraft being operated ... Check out the loss rate for the F-104 alone....

During its period of service with the German armed forces, about 270 German Starfighters were lost in accidents, just under 30 percent of the total force. About 110 pilots were killed. However, the attrition rate in German service was not all that much greater than that of the F-104 in service with several other air forces, including the United States Air Force. Canada had the unenviable record of losing over 50 percent of its 200 single-seat CF-104s in flying accidents

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/f104_17.html

Hence it was nicknamed "The Widowmaker", especially the early models with downward firing ejection seats.

How did you get to own an F104 during the Cold War?.....Buy a field in Germany and sooner or later one would end up in it.