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Although the upgrade was planned well ahead of the attacks, officials said the defence ministry wants to speed up modernisation of its forces to tackle any future security threat.
The upgrading comes at a time when tension runs high with Pakistan over Mumbai and India is saying it has all options open to deal with "terror outfits" in Pakistan.
India is spending $92 million to develop the fighters with precise navigational equipment, better weapons aiming and accurate ranging sensors for hitting ground targets.
"The hardware and avionics bit has already been fitted into 40 fighters, and the software is being loaded now," said Suranjan Pal, a senior Defence Research and Development Organisation official.
With the upgrading, the MiG fighters would last for another 10 years and have autopilot and auto weapon delivery facilities, a senior Indian Air Force official said.
India is looking to spend $30 billion on imports over the next five years to modernise its largely Soviet-era arms and is also trying to strengthen its navy by introducing new weapons systems.
The MiG-27 aircraft was originally built in the former Soviet Union in the mid-1970s before it was licenced to be produced in India.
India, fast becoming one of the world's biggest arms importers, wants to modernise its air force, the fourth largest in the world, to cope with possible security threats in the region, security experts said.
"This is something more than it meets the eye, India is now very keen to signal to all the people that are monitoring the country that India is modernising its defence units," says C. Uday Bhaskar, a strategic affairs expert. "It seems we are now putting all the pieces together."
India is also considering upgrading of its other fighter fleet, including Mirage 2000s, Jaguars and MiG 29s, ahead of procuring the new generation Sukhoi-30MKIs, officials said.
It has also invited bids for a contract to supply 126 multi-role fighter jets, potentially worth more than $10 billion.
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India should up grade the leaders. What were you doing mr. defence minister all these time? Is it only now it came to your mind that the fighters are to be up graded ? You were in fact demorillizing the armed forces since you have taken over as defence minister, even a sweeper in Mumbai is paid more than you pay to a soldier. What did you do to revise the pay scale of our Armed forces ?? This is only to high light that the defence minister is doing something very big, we know sir, the L S election is nearing..
Is this not a case of '" when the house catches fire start digging for water' ? unless this is a storey planted to send some message to pakisthan
This statement is just for the survival of the defence minister..
India needs a new leader young a brave. I am not talking of Rahul Gandhi because if he becomes our PM he will all the time going to his mom for advise. So we need someone who can be stronge and brave. At present our Indian Politicians are corrupt,full of rust and good for nothing. When they give a speech you can make out from their speech is that whatever they speak it is not coming from the heart but all what they see is how much money am I going to make today rest all go to hell. Upgrade meaning kickbacks and under cut. Indian Politiican got good excuse to say of upgrading... what a joke....
I am glad to know about the upgradation of Fighters, but are we upgrading our decisions? We need to take some decisions, upgrade our own internal systems. We have to come up with tough decisions which show our enemies that we are not dormant, and we can explode into much furious acts then anyone's dreams. If we have heaven in us then the Hell resides within us too. Take the toll, get all the convicts to account for their deeds and push them to their fate ruthlessly. Let the world know, the most humble nation on earth is also the most strict one.In short, planning for future is fruit full only when we get over our present fouls. Get every terrorist to conviction and end up the list, By that I mean KILL them.
If these are never used for our defence why waste money on these. People are coming from across the sea and killing our citizens. If these are to be used only on r 26th Jan Parade then you can hire few Jets from other country. A cardboard plane will also do on Parade.
Our air force has a lot of outdated aircraft from Russia. They need to be removed, as they cause death of pilots etc. These MIGs are history and we need better equipment for the future.
Its been atleast 5 years since we decided we needed 126 fighter planes. By the time we get it our need would have gone to another 126 and we will still lag behind. Our policeman have 303 rifles and dandas. Lets give those to VIP securty guys and give their automatic weapons to the police. Too little too late. But even with all the weapons do our politicians still have courage to do whats right. Which is to attack pakistan instead of our PM giving clean chit to pakistan by saying 'non state actors" were involved. What more provocation do they need.....pakistan dropping nuclear bomb on india?
read between the lines "india is making everyone know that india is going for a massive upgradation" means another way of putting pressure on pakistan while doing what should have been done in the normal course
I agree with Union Minister Ms. Renuka Chowdhary.These predators should get life imprisonment without any bail.
Lets upgrade our politicians instead.We have old,rusted,gutless and always sleeping politicians. they think only when they wake up and running to the "Big Brother" (US) for help. The only option left for Indians is to remove them. How,only we indians must decide, and that is also fast otherwise we will be obsolate also.
well India Ironicaly dont consider abt its forces seriously and upgradation is really needed but that has to be time constrain nt like LCA will come in 2012 by that time that technology will be scrap.the role of private industries has to be increased and the option rather than HAL has to find within India.like India started to look after its forces from karachi blockade and till date we are nt confident that the soldier on the forces will be safe from bullet and the present encounters and no of soldires dying is matter of concern.I am pleased to know that Indian express is always encouraging defence matters with real responsibility and without harming the strategic aspects of it.Goodluck.
I think the defence ministry is woke up now, after 200 poor Indians were killed by pak terrorists. We were supposed to be ahead of the problems, but our present leaders are behind the problems.
All defense upgrades are too little, too late, All this should have been done when the Kashmir uprising started apps. 25 years ago At the least all upgrades should have been completed by 1998, when we decided to Go completely Nuclear. Because Nuclear Bombs can not be used fiist by Indian's policy, we have to have supreme airforce and naval forces, army, marines and coast guards that provide us celar superiority in air, sea and land. THERE IS NO OTHER CHOICE. IF WE DO NOT WANT TO USE NUCLEAR MISSILES, THAN ALL OF THE ABOVE IS NECESSAY AND MUST BE KEPT UP TO DATE AND IN A PERMENANT READY TO STRKIKE STATE AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE. PAKISTAN IS MORE INTERESTED IN NEUTRON BOMBS SO THEY CAN KILL POPLE WITHOUT DESTROYING PROPERTY AND LAND. THIS WAY THEY CAN COME IN GRAB THE PROPERTY AND LAND IN SHORT TIME. THEIR MISSILES ARE NAMED AFTER THE CONQUERERS IN INIDA BABUR, GHAZANAVI, GHORI AND INVADERS OF INDIA, THIS SYMBOLIC USE MAKE THEIR FUTURE INTENTIONS VERY VERY CLEAR.
it will take india 20years to upgrade its fleet,forget about buying 126 fighter that it plans to buy. that will take 20 year to decide.
Indian Air Force is laughably outdated; it can't survive the neighbours' strike power. India should look at what kind of punch power China, B'desh, Pakistan,
Arun,LoL. I think you underestimate us (Indians). In the air-air combat exercise near Karnataka about 1.5 years ago, our humble migs outperformed the USAF F-16s. Reason:- Even if we have low tech vis a vis US armed forces, the training of our personnel compensates it. (Forget about Pak,China
Hhehehhehe Mr Arun Pakistan have upgraded F-16. Mirage ROSE etc....which are enough for indian Air Force
M Arun needs to reconcile with himself if he is indeed a proud Indian at heart. Unwarranted denigration like this just to look clever reflects woefully on the character of the person.Learn to be proud of what you have, in any case wars are not won through equipment alone, if that was so the US should have won all their conflicts so far. Fortunately, your armed forces are among the best in the world. You have people who will die with pride for the country to save people even like Arun.
YOU BETTER UPDATE YOUR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE ARMED FORCES OF INDIA. PLESE DO NOT OPEN YOUR MOUTH FOR SOMETHING YOU ARE UNAWARE.. YOU ARE AN EDUCATED FOOL..
why the hell are those fighter planes standing for getting rust go attack camp in pak they r attacking we r upgrading why we r upgarding to prevent enemy not to attack us but these effort is useless go attack now
Imran, see we've been like this always.Gandhian pacificism and Nehruvian internationalism,non-aligned and all that.Our enemy is the most "bahadur".Yesterday,it was UK and US which were its friends,now it accuses us of being in the wrong by being their friends.So many years of its bravery couldn't stopped it from reaching the stage where there are long queues for ration etc.It is our hateful and spiteful neighbor.We believe in single secular,democratic nation,good neighborliness etc.,but it always colludes with our eastern enemy against us.Now it is gone friendless.So it wants to draw us into a fight so we will be weakened like it too.But,we must not follow agenda set by this enemy on our west.Wait a while,and its capacity for playing mischief in other countries will get annihilated soon.Hope you agree.Thanks.
Imran, you have said it. Piya bin shrungar.......Another eyewash propaganda from Congress is anyone's guess.
we are not attacking so that we do not fall in our neighbour's trap and so that india remains peaceful enough to attract foreign capital and jobs so that both educted morons and educated fools of our country can happly sing "war war" on their keyboards; that is why we are not attacking
You are right, James, up to a point. The smart thing to do is not going to war or avoiding it, but deterring it. To be able to do that the country must be well prepared and equipped with the latest and technologically flawless war machinery. Those who are charged with the defense of the country should have thought about up-gradation, overhaul and purchase of new equipment well in advance and not in the middle of a crisis. A man of war on the drawing board or the intent to buy 126 war planes cannot yet be regarded as added resources to fight a war with. So, if the people go on singing "war war on their key boards" it is not out of love for it, but on the other hand it is a plaintive song of a people whose leaders have let them down by allowing a war mongering neighbour to intimidate and kill their kin at will.