Sunday, March 31, 2019

After Balakot, IAF plans to equip Mirage 2000 aircraft with long-range Meteor missiles

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force is keenly considering arming the Mirage 2000 aircraft with potent long-range Meteor missiles as the 27 February dogfight highlighted that Indian aircraft were outranged by Pakistan Air Force in aerial combat.

With the Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile Meteor, the balance will once again tilt in India’s favour the way it happened during the Kargil war in 1999 when the Pakistan Air Force did not dare to close in because India had better air-to-air missiles.

On 27 February, at the Line of Control (LoC), Pakistan’s F-16 fighter jets, armed with AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM, had targeted India’s frontline fighter aircraft Su-30 MKI.

The Indian fighters, armed with R-73 and R-77 air-to-air missiles, could not target the F-16s because they were outranged as the F-16s were fired from a distance of about 45 km from the LoC.

It is only when a Mig-21 Bison, flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, chased an intruding Pakistani fighter jet across the LoC that it got a lock on and shot it down.
30/03/19 Snehesh Alex Philip/Print
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