East, West meet - Incredible India

Today I woke up to a news which was less than pleasant. The headlines in my Google feed read "Iranian missiles land near UAE airbase where Indian Rafale jets were on an overnight halt". And my mind was seriously considering the possibility of our most vaunted jets being damaged or destroyed on its maiden journey to our homeland, ironically drawing a parallel to the Titanic. When I saw these images coming up, I was both elated and proud.

This picture which shows the most prized possessions of the Indian Air Force prompted me to write this article.

Our country is unique in the sense that we have struck a beautiful balance between East and West.

Let me take the Su 30MKI mentioned in the picture above as an example, it is a Russian origin aircraft incorporating Israeli electronics. In layman's terms it can be said that we have successfully managed to incorporate two polar opposite technologies into a single platform. Mind you Su 30MKI was considered more modern than the aircrafts of same family that were present in the Russian inventory and the top dog of all of Asia and Europe combined. It was so advanced that the Americans wanted us to fly our jets against their F 22s (the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world.. period.) so that they could evaluate them. This 'Jugaad' was not one of, in fact we have used Israeli electronics with Russian weapons multiple times. And it is not just Israeli and Russian technologies that we have used in conjunction. We have in our inventory technologies from all nooks and corners of the world, from a British aircraft carrier to a Russian nuclear submarine, we have systems that are so diverse that the mere thought of them functioning smoothly together is mind boggling and dizzying to anyone other than an Indian.

The Rafales (French origin) that flew together with the Sukhois (Russian origin) today come from a rich lineage of aircrafts like Jaguars and Mirages that also flew together with the legendary Migs of IAF. So I am confident that we will be able to find the right place for these new beauties and also we will continue to hold on to the tradition of operating the most rich mix of weapon systems that you could imagine and which can't be found anywhere else on the face of the earth.

It is indeed very true right ? As a nation we really have Diversity in our blood.