Source:-Why doesn’t India buy strategic bombers, As China deployed H-6K Bombers in Tibet?
The Chinese air force apparently has deployed bombers to an air base in the country’s far west, placing the warplanes within striking distance of Indian forces along the disputed Chinese-Indian border in the Himalayas.
The H-6 is a Chinese development of the twin-engine Soviet Tu-16 medium bomber. Chinese industry has greatly improved the basic Tu-16 with new sensors, avionics, engines and weapons.
Does India need Fleet of Strategic Bombers?
India doesn’t have much military interest all over the world as united states or china has rather its major concern is defend the nation from any threats from land,sea and air.
Let me first give you some insights why a country develop or maintain a fleet of strategic bombers which are most advanced and stealthy as far as their interest over the world is concerned. Strategic bombers are developed and used for bombing enemy lines or territories which are located far away from the country which is planned for the operation. The distance mostly will be thousands of miles ( for example America’s most advanced stealth bomber B-2 spirit can travel 10000 km in single fueling ) and the planes are designed to carry more weapons mostly drop bombs which is either nuclear or conventional. And they have to fly without spotted by the enemy radars ,for that reason they may have to fly at high altitude and should be covered and designed by stealth features. They are created to smash the enemies by maximum destruction and get back to origin without any much interception. So this what actually a bomber does.
Now coming to the important part of the question why India doesn’t maintain the fleet ?
The reason is being India is a country which doesn’t have much more military interest over any country, this is the only few nations which never invaded any country illegally or unethically. India’s main concern is defend the country from any threat for that purpose India has all capability in terms of military in all three dimensions . India can bomb its enemy territory without having a bomber in its arsenal since at present its adversaries already comes under conventional bomber’s limit or missiles which India possessed. India has most strategic weapons like ballistic missiles ( both nuclear and conventional ) have range of 8000 km and submarines which can launch nuclear weapons and bombs of many kind
In modern era , the difference between Bombers and Attack Aircraft have blurred and reduced to just Text-Book terms since many Modern Fighter Aircrafts are used to deliver bombs though their role is much different from being “Bomb Trucks”. With the availability of air-to-air refueling their combat range can be extended enough to do deep strike bombing in enemy territory.
India has ability to launch nukes from land, air and sea; soon India will have 4 more SSBNs.However India does not have Strategic Bomber/ Long Range Standoff Launcher like US, Russia and China do. (and UK did.)
The role of these Bombers is- travelling over large distances; tiptoeing into the enemy territory; and bombing the shit out of enemy forces. They are stealthy as anything (B-2 Spirit, best example), large (take any of them) and can’t do much to defend against fighter aircraft and SAMs (once detected, they are next to sitting ducks).
Now, coming to why the IAF does not have any bombers. As mentioned above, bombers are suited for heavy bombing over great distances. In our case, we can use the multi role fighter aircraft against our enemies like China and Pakistan. And we have successfully done so in ’71 and Kargil.
Indian Air Force at present has SEPECAT Jaguars in Deep Penetration Strike Roles where it can be used as bombers to drop LGBs ( Laser Guided Bombs ) and Cluster Bombs on Strategic targets. Even Mig-27UPG can be used for similar roles as “Bomb-Trucks” . Mirage 2000 is one of IAF’s option to deliver nuclear bombs inside enemy territory. Su-30MKI uses a lot of specialized weapons like OFAB Bombs and KAB-500/1500 LGBs. The limiting factor for them is the range which can be taken care of by aerial refueling giving them a larger combat radius.
Indian Air Force also uses its AN-32 aircrafts to use as bombers continuing the tradition of its predecessor AN-12 which was used by IAF to bomb Pakistani positions in 1971 War where they did Carpet-Bombing using 500-pounders.
.India doesn’t require Long Range Bombers because our foes are near by. Russia and America use bombers because of the distance between these two foes. The bombers can carry larger payloads to longer distances at slow speed.
Although precision guided cruise/ballastic missiles reduced the requirements of an bomber still there are scenarios where an bomber can be useful.Also if Indian armed forces has to face a big offensice army formation, then bombers are the ultimate solution as they can neutralize a vast area with a single sortie.
As for dedicated bombers , India doesn’t operate any for now though it has been developing strategic stealth UAVs like DRDO AURA/Ghatak which can be used for stealthy insertion in enemy territory and striking the enemy with PGMs , LGBs and more. DRDO AURA which will be inducted into service by 2025 according to certain sources.
Source:- Quora
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