Over the last one week we have seen problem in the big mobilization in ladakh, but today(July 24th, 2020) the indian air force rafales are going to be landing combat ready and deployed for air operations pointed at china if it become necessary and a new weapon system even at this late stage has just been chosen by the indian air force on the rafal it's called the hammer .
There are questions over why this system was necessary and why is it only being ordered at this belated stage ?.
india's first rafales will land at their home base in ambala, their game-changing weapons have already arrived with pilots,who were fully operational and trained in their use of the weapon and now just days before the super modern jets arrived to India and if india china disengagement in eastern ladakh grinds to a troubling halt then the indian air force has decided to exercise emergency purchase powers to add another weapon to its rafale jets.
The hammer working on combat deployed french rafales is an exact strike weapon (range of up to 60 kilometers) has the advantage of accuracy even from very high altitude launch and it can easily destroy reinforced positions including subterranean bunkers. the hammer system has been used for pinpoint strikes in Afghanistan and Libya. the hammer is made by french company safran the same conglomerate that makes the rafale's m88 jet engines in 2016 just months before india signed the deal for 36 rafal jets .
saffron entered into a joint venture partnership with an indian company to manufacture the hammer system in india but the hammer kits ordered under emergency rules by the indian air force will likely come directly from france by choosing to acquire the hammer weapon the air force has exercised an option that was made available to it back in 2016. At that time india had decided to integrate the israeli spice weapon with its raffles that's right the same family of precision strike weapons that were used in the 2019 balacode air strikes in pakistan .
the decision to know the acquire comparable hammer system has emerged as a blip on some political radars opposition mp manish tiwari for instance has gone public wondering why the hammer has been chosen sources tell india today the integration of the spice weapon is still a way off on the indian rafales and therefore a pressing need for a credible precision strike weapon especially in the current india china scenario in eastern ladakh has compelled the purchase of the hammer on an emergency basis.
the hammer systems once ordered will be delivered from france within months bureau report india today and the journalists who actually broke the story about this very surprising acquisition of the hammer weapon system is india. when a lot of equipment is being purchased the hammer system is something that was made available uh you know to the indian government way back in 2016 and at this belated stage the indian air force has chosen it help us understand why it has been chosen at this late stage .
The hammers were included very recently after the standoff in ladakh began when the air force asked the french manufacturers to supply this on an urgent basis as a fast track acquisition it wasn't there as you mentioned earlier when the deal was signed in 2016. the idea was to integrate the spice bombs yes as part of the india specific enhancements but now uh the hammer is coming into you know fulfill that very critical closed air support mission that the air force might be called to undertake uh the uh kind of targets that you mentioned that you know reinforced bunkers and structures that kind of thing so that clearly tells you that the air force is going to rationalize the rafale at the very earliest and it needs this entire range of capabilities including the hammer.
We do know that the other rafale weapons including the meteor and the scalp have already arrived to India but is that india had expressed urgency for these weapons?
Some production inventory for the french armed forces were diverted to the indian side could that conceivably happen with the hammer systems as well because usually it takes a while for such items to get delivered, so can we expect that these will be delivered in a matter of weeks and not months absolutely chef wouldn't be surprised if that happens because as mentioned all these munitions have already started coming in and these are a priority for the air force especially for the air to ground missions and the work has been integrated has certain classified aspects which have been told are the reason that the air force really went for it the guidance package for instance and the fact that it is actually made for the rafale and it's not a third country system that you have great and there's a very little room for error in this integration is almost like a plug-and-play system. So that's what really makes it stand out so i wouldn't really be surprised if it's already begun to arrive in india.
0 Comments