Why is China afraid of Indian Rafale fighters?

China knows that Rafale is the most dangerous flying object today… But, actually, China is not afraid of 36 Rafales since it has 2000 jet fighters and 120 strategic bombers. What China is afraid of Is India deciding that she needs as much Rafales as she has Flankers… Any way, IAF needs at least 42–45 squadrons of jet fighters and with all the antiques around, if MinDef was logical (can it be?), orders would be passed to add the 14–15 Su-30MKI squadrons with as much Rafales and as much of an improved Tejas I will describe at the end of my answer.

I’d have no problem at maintaining air superiority on China+Porkistan with 14–15 Rafale squadrons in IAF, thus, I’d need some points I will express in my answer to the page. I will post this later today herein

Multiple racks for Meteor :

With racks of 5 Meteors, a way like what is under the F-4, or even 4x racks would allow a serious “beast load” enough to engage successfully a full squadron… Actually, the Porki post Balakot strike pack of 28 would have a bad surprise facing only 2 Rafales with such beast load.

2. CFT : having the two CFTs would allow a 2500km CAP (combat air patrol) with maximum A2A beast load.

3. Swede/Swiss-like “airbases”

In other terms : thanks to Rafale taking off in 400m and landing in 450 at maximum load, any portion of straight road taking 30t trucks with a 600m length becomes a potential airbase. Any warehouse can be OK as a hangar, Rafale needs pretty low maintenance, so only a few trucks are needed, most of the time, you don’t need more than 2–3 technicians, rarely 4.

Then, even road-tunnels in the mountains can be arranged as “secret” bases. The goal must be that, in case of tensions, no squadrons shall be based on known bases. Note that usually, the Swedes underground bases have several roads around… This is a 3D model of a Swedish underground base :

During cold-war, Sweden had about 40 road-airbases, about as much as classic ones, thus, in case of tensions, the classic bases were useless to bomb… Note that it’s becoming more and more common : If war was declared, these highways would reveal their true purpose.

Deception shall be considered too : an inflatable army (including simulation of IR signature, electromagnetic emissions, etc), is a very nice way to deceive

This inflatable Buk sells on Aliexpress!!. note that such decoys are not new

Let the enemy shoot at decoys, even use these as baits then… surprayze!!!

Another important point :

How to make Tejas a REALLY dangerous aircraft! Two Possibilities to both be used!

1.) Dassault/Safran/Thales have reviewed the concept, as asked in the offset of the Rafale contract!

Safran M88/Kaveri : 98kN version of Rafale’s engine, optional vectoring thrust. M88 is much compact/lighter than both GE F404/F414 while as powerful as F414 (97.9kN) this allows to carry as much fuel as Gripen-E or Mirage-2000. M88 is a modular engine allowing 5-6 daily missions and to be pushed to 10-11 missions/day for at least a full week (tested in combat from the aircraft carrier in Libya). It has also a very serous system to reduce IR signature (IR-stealth). Engine was DRDO approved, flight tests planned current 2020
Tejas ends 500kg lighter with an reinforced airframe allowing 11G manoeuvres. Note that Gripen-E weights 8t with same thrust/fuel and 5500kg payload. The UAE’s Mirage-2000/9 weights 7800kg with same thrust and carries 7t payload, here we have a 6000–6100kg packing as much thrust as the aforementioned platforms… Air intakes would be redesigned (need more air flow), internals have been improved, Rafale’s materials are used.
RBE2/AESA radar. DRDO approved, flight tests done
OSF-IT 2nd gen QWIP (quantum-well infrared photodetector) IRST/EO. 1st gen OSF could lock a subsonic F-22 from 95-115km and a supercruise one from…270-455km (!)
Active stealth taken from Rafale’s SPECTRA. DRDO approved
BRS (ballistic recovery system) parachute (in case of engine failure!)
Meteor missile
Won’t need to do extensive flight tests as flght characteristics are unchanged, only need validation of new elements.
Airframe planned for 40-50 years.
I can’t tell if DDM-NG (Rafale’s EODAS) is to be fit but it’d make sense
Planned price =$45–46M (Gripen-E = $85–90M, F-16V/F-21 = $90M)

2.) Now, there’s an obstacle : India already bought 99x GE F414 engine and ADA+HAL want to create a stretched Tejas Mk.2 with 0.5m; 1m and 1.35m longer versions, the +1.35m being a twin engine… Let me say that, this is DUMB! In all these cases, you need to do serious re-design, including the wings, then flight tests for about 3 years after building the prototype, fixing the issues, then delivering a pre-serie, here we go again for 3 years of tests, then build an assembly line (2–3 years) then start production (2 years before 1st delivery)… Same mess as with the stretched Gripen-E : how funny, HAL sought Saa advising rather than Dassault’s while ADA bought the Rafale’s single engine never built demonstrator from… Dassault! It’s even why Dassault could deliver blue prints for an improved Tejas as soon as August 2017!!!

So, what to do with those 99x F414? Well, F414 is nothing else than a F404 (used on Tejas Mk1/Mk1A) on steroids, so it can be used as a drop in. All you need to do are minor mods (including stretched air-intakes) then any Mk1 can receive a F414… Now, the issue of Mk1 is the lack of internal fuel : only 2486kg… They want 3300kg for Mk2… They easily can have more without modifying the airframe!!! Many models of aircraft are fit with Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFT) today! Such things exist for Rafale, F-16, F-18, F-15, etc!

Therefore, no need to do big mods, even Mk1 can get what it lacks the most : thrust and internal fuel, moreover, no need to make prototypes, you just have to validat the mods and by the time you deliver 66–99 Tejas Mk1 with F414 (personally, I’d keep the third of the engines as spares), the definitive version with M88/Kaveri will start to be delivered, and again, no need for prototyping.

Thus, I make myself no illusions: unless some serous reforms, it’s unlikely that even if my analyses go straight to MoD, anyone will care, same for the purchase process… There is a lot of gear India bought that I’d had never purchased! There is stuff ’d bought from USA any day, but most of what has been selected by the MoD, no hell, no! In fact, same for Russian gear, about the Make in India thing, there’d be surprising design I’d go for too, sometimes even forgotten ones like the Breguet Br.941 which I’d love to see a Br.941-NG made as it was a true wonder that would be useful as well for the military as for the civilian market! This 1961 thing is more than relevant even today! I’d consider a 20% stretched version of the OV-10 Bronco with 2x 1940–2645hp turboprop and a small 20–30kN turbofan on the back, so this would take over the job of gunship choppers as well as a CAS+Tank Hunter aircraft similar to a A-10 but made even better, moreover, both OV-10 and Br.941 could be used from LHD similar to French Mistral-class, moreover, I’m able to propose a concept using the Mistral design for a full CATOBAR nuclear carrier that despite being pretty small (245.5m) would have more hangars than a Nimitz-class. I have many other ideas available as well as for firearms, vehicles, etc…

Now, TADAAAAA!!! How to REALLY pi$$ off Beijing!!!!

Propose to Taiwan having Rafales, so with joint purchases, both can take profit of a scale economy (Taiwan already makes its own light fighter, the AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo)
Propose the BrahMos to Taiwan
Propose a secret arrangement to sell off the shelves 200 kilotons nuclear-warheads fit on the BrahMos…

There’s a thing that is Beijing’s worst nightmare : a nuclear armed Taiwan!!!

China arms Porkistan, India arms Taiwan, this is what the French call “politeness” with a big finger 🖕🏾

Now, what would be VERY clever : Modi and other heads of states in the region paying visits to each other, having talks about Chinese sabre rattling et all… They, you have some heads of states saying that if China pursues its aggressive policies, it will be necessary to create an Asian “NATO”, nuclearise and start a nuclear sharing policy… All should be incitated at having road airbases similar to the Swede ones and have programs with secrecy around in order it not being clear what they’re about. Some airbases should be equipped with vaults similar to those used for NATO nuclear sharing in all countries.

Then, what happens? Two aeral nuclear tests of 200 kilotons at no less than 15,000 ft altitude to avoid fallouts. IMHO, the perfect locations would be here :

Then, NOBODY endorses the blasts but several, e.g. Taiwan, So-Ko, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, eventually Malaysia and/or Singapore start a policy of nuclear ambiguity similar to the Israeli one…

Here we have two cases similar to the Vela incident and likely 2 countries or more in the region having teamed like France and Israel that just tested nukes. Everything must be done with both plausible deniability and ambiguity at the same time or UN may sanction, but the message would be clear : China may have overwhelming conventional power compared to neighbours, as it’s not clear who has warheads, China must refrain from any invasion project or it may be met with grim consequences. They will surely be convinced that India is pulling the strings but with 6–8 nations playing the game, three of them already seen as “nuclear threshold”, anything is possible! Deterrence is all about deception…