The Indian Observer Research Foundation published an article on April 18 titled "The Challenge of the Indian Air Force: Bridging the Gap between Bombers and Air-launched Cruise Missiles", author is Kaltik Bomakanti, a senior researcher at the Strategic Research Program of the Indian Observer Research Foundation. Excerpts from the article are as follows:

  The Indian Air Force has several weaknesses, but two are almost completely unsolved – air-launched cruise missiles and bomber platforms capable of carrying it. This is a double challenge facing the Indian Air Force today. This weakness has become particularly prominent in the face of the progress of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force in these capabilities. In this regard, India really has no discussion and official announcements, and there has been no substantial progress in air-launched cruise missiles and bombers/fighters that can carry it.

  The "Defensible" cruise missile developed by the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization is a subsonic missile with a range of 1,000 kilometers and has the ability to follow the terrain and fly across the sea. In the early 2010s, the National Defense Research and Development Organization launched the development of the "Fearless" air-launched cruise missile program. From 2013 to 2018, the "Fearless" cruise missiles conducted several tests, but most of them ended in failure.

  The Indian Air Force is eager to obtain air-launched cruise missile capabilities. Once tested on a large scale, this missile will be integrated and launched by a specially modified Su-30MKI fighter jet, which can strike ground targets from the air within the confrontation range. As early as early 2018, then Chief of Staff of the Indian Air Force, Danoah appointed a senior officer of the Indian Air Force to supervise the acceleration of the development of the air-launched cruise missile version "Fearless", and the National Defense Research and Development Organization agreed that the Indian Air Force will conduct airdrop tests in 2020 and test launches in 2021 after the transformation. However, since then, no signs of progress have been made.

  After a series of failures and successes, the Organization for Defense Research and Development tested the "Fearless" cruise missile in October 2020 at the height of the Sino-Indian border crisis. The missile test range was 1,000 kilometers and a speed of Mach 0.7. Although it used a new domestic small turbofan engine developed by the Gas Turbine Research Institute under the National Defense Research and Development Organization, the test ended in failure.

  The "Fearless" cruise missile has sea and land attack variants. In fact, a limited land attack version of this missile is believed to be even deployed near the actual control line for launch from a land-based platform. The maritime variant of this missile is developing into submarine-launched cruise missiles. The "Dreadless" cruise missile has achieved substantial technical achievements, such as a small turbofan engine called "Ruby" and an improved RF seeker developed by the Imarat Research Center in India.

  However, by far the most disappointing is the air-launched variant of the missile, which is also a weakness in India's missile launch capability. In the Defence Research and Development Organization and the Indian Air Force, neither have made significant progress in meeting the technical indicators of air-launched cruise missiles nor have air platforms capable of carrying it. In addition, neither the Ministry of Defense nor the Organization for Defense Research and Development issued an official statement on future or planned trials. This brings up many questions: Is the "Fearless" air-launched cruise missile variant abandoned or is it not a priority option? If there are constraints, is it capital or technology? Or both? These are questions that need to be answered.

  In November 2024, India successfully tested the hypersonic cruise missile with a range of 1,500 kilometers. Its maneuverability in flight allowed it to quickly change courses, but no test firing has been conducted since then. According to some reports, the Indian Air Force is not keen on air-launched hypersonic cruise missiles because it has problems of overweight and insufficient miniaturization. The current efforts of the Defense Research and Development Organization appear to be limited to land-based hypersonic missiles. Putting aside hypersonic missiles, the Indian Air Force, the Defence Research and Development Organization and the Ministry of Defense all need to clarify whether the subsonic "Dreadless" air-launched cruise missile is still an active project and what its carrier platform will be. (Translated by Lu Di)

[Editor in charge: Wang Jinzhi]