Have you ever thought what will happen if India’s Sukhoi 30-MKI will be against the Pakistan’s F-16 what will happen? Alcatraz Day answers beautifully on Quora what he thinks as someone who has served in the Indian Air Force.
Coming to the possible hypothetical circumstances.
India, as of now will never penetrate Pakistani territory with an aircraft. The only possibility will be of surgical strikes by the army. And I believe, even PAF will not be willing to sacrifice an aircraft by sending it inside Indian territory.
F-16 of USA in Iraq
So, I am assuming this dogfight will take place over the Arabian sea, probably in the territory marked below. The scenario being one of the aircrafts has accidentally gone into the airspace of the other, and has not responded back despite several warnings.
Arabian Sea
Now, I would like to remind everyone of Cope India 2005, an exercise held between USAF and IAF. The Su-30’s were up against F-16’s and outmatched them comprehensively.
This is what one of the USAF pilots had to say post the exercise.
“What we’ve seen in the last two weeks is the IAF can stand toe-to-toe with the best air force in the world. I pity the pilot who has to face the IAF and chances the day to underestimate him; because he won’t be going home. They made good decisions about when to bring their strikers in.”
Source: Aviationist
The F-16 has AN/APG radar which is a pulse-doppler radar.
Sukhoi 30- MKi
The Su- 30 is equipped with NIIP Bars radar, which can track 15 air targets simultaneously. This also helps the Sukhoi to act as a mini AWACS for the other aircrafts in the formation. This allows to maintain air superiority in the airspace. Any missile or any aircraft movement can be detected and eliminated immediately.
Apart from this, it has OLS IR system, and an aggressive electronic counter measure system. So, any attempts at jamming the avionics by F-16, would be countered effectively.
Now, the old style of locking onto an aircraft in a tail chase or trying to outmaneuver each other is a tale of the past.
And even if it happens, look at some of the maneuvers a Su-30 can perform unlike the F 16.
The Pugachev Cobra!
Pugachev’s Cobra maneuver is one of the tests for supermaneuverability, here performed by a Su-27
It can be as good as still in mid-air using its thrust vectors, and position itself accordingly to target the enemy aircraft.
Its rate of turn is incredibly low, and can perform tight cornered turns and loops with incredibly low displacement, which is far superior compared to a F- 16.
And now, if I go down comparing the armament capabilities of the Su 30, there will not even be a match.
So, who is going to win?
I do not know.
Will such a dogfight ever happen?
Pilots on both the sides have to be really stupid for such a situation to occur, which, obviously they are not. But, I am just saying the Su-30 is much better capable any day.
One Pugachev Cobra Maneuver and that’s it!
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