At the beginning, India did not purchase more Rafale, which had a lot to do with France's inability to provide advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles similar to the AIM-120D.

It is an indisputable fact that air warfare has entered the era of over-the-horizon, and it is also a general trend that no one can change.

It can be said that advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles have long become the standard weapons of advanced fighters, and have become a key indicator to measure the performance of fighters.

In many cases, an advanced missile is even more important than an advanced fighter.

In addition, with the improvement of radar performance, especially AESA, that is, active phased array radar has become the mainstream, fighter jets have become farther and farther away from target detection, discovery and tracking, and can fire at a longer distance, which puts forward higher requirements for the range of missiles.

It is precisely for this reason that all major countries are developing air-to-air missiles with a longer range.

A more typical one is actually AIM-120D.

At the beginning, because of the use of ordinary rocket engines, the range of the AIM-120A was not far, its attack range in the rear hemisphere was not even 40 kilometers, and the head-on attack distance was only about 60 kilometers, but it was slightly better than the previous generation of "Sparrow" missiles.

Of course, when developing the AIM-120A, the US military did not pay attention to the range, but the hit rate.

It is precisely because of this that the AIM-120A allocates more weight to the guidance system, so that there is not enough left for the rocket engine.

By the AIM-120C, a dual-thrust rocket engine began to be adopted.

Then to the AIM-120D, by reducing the wing, the flight resistance is reduced, the speed is further improved, and the purpose of increasing the range is indirectly achieved.

Of course, it was originally designed so that the F-22A could carry two more missiles.

In addition, after reducing the wing, the maneuverability of the AIM-120D is significantly reduced, except that the medium-range air-to-air missile does not require too high maneuverability.

As a result of this series of developments, the range of the AIM-120D has increased by 50% compared to the AIM-120A.

It's just that that's it.

To continue to improve, it is necessary to use better engines, and the only one that is better than the dual-thrust rocket engine is the ramjet engine.

Europe's "Meteor" missiles were the first to use ramjet engines.

Thanks to this, the "Meteor" received a dynamic range of 120 km, as well as a maximum range of 180 km, which is theoretically possible.

You know, that's almost twice as much as the AIM-120A!

Why, then, did the Americans not adopt a ramjet?

Isn't the technology enough?

Apparently not.

At the time of the development of the "Meteor" in Europe, the technology of the ramjet engine was not mature enough, especially in the aerodynamic layout, there were too many restrictions.

If nothing else, the air intake tract alone will seriously limit the missile's maneuverability.

Therefore, when developing the "Meteor" in Europe, the United States chose a dual-thrust rocket engine to increase the range of the AIM-120 by a cut.

However, with the advancement of technology, especially the breakthrough in the design of the aerodynamic layout, such as the embedded air intake, many performance defects of the ramjet engine have been solved, so in almost all new generation of medium-range air-to-air missiles, the ramjet engine is used.

In fact, this is the only technical way to increase the range.

Of course, most of these missiles are under development and are still several years away from service.

It's not that the range of missiles is not important, but that those countries that can develop and produce medium-range air-to-air missiles do not have the need for this for the time being.

Why?

There has been no large-scale war for decades, let alone an air war, so countries believe that the missiles they already have are sufficient.

If there is no demand, why spend money on research and procurement?

Even if it is to be developed, it is mainly based on technical reserves.

Of course, in this regard, Huaxia has done a very good job.

Along with the J-20, Huaxia has at least two long-range air-to-air missiles in the development stage, and the first to come out is actually the PL-12 extended range version.

In fact, this missile only adopted the basic shape design of the PL-12, which was completely changed internally.

The biggest change is the replacement of the dual-thrust rocket engine with a ramjet engine, which increases the range of the missile to more than 150 kilometers in one fell swoop.

The other is an ultra-long-range air-to-air missile with a range of more than 300 kilometers and even 400 kilometers.

It's just that this missile is too big to fit into the bomb bay of the J-20, so the Huaxia Air Force is not very enthusiastic, and the development progress is very slow.

It can be seen that increasing the range is the general trend of air-to-air missiles.

The French not only did not think about making the missiles go farther, but on the contrary, in order to save money, they combined medium-range missiles with combat missiles.

In fact, this is one of the main reasons why the sales of "Rafale" have not been very good.

Although theoretically, the Rafale is fully capable of using long-range missiles such as the Meteor, the arrogant French just refuse to bow their heads.

On the general trend, air-to-air missiles either shoot far enough or are flexible enough.

The latter, naturally, is embodied in combat missiles.

The new generation of combat missiles all have extremely high maneuverability, as well as an almost all-round range of fire.

It's just that in modern air combat, especially in air combat with fourth-generation aircraft, there are practically no places for combat missiles.

When fifth-generation aircraft such as the J-20, F-22A, and F-35A take on the mainstream, perhaps air combat will change and combat missiles will be given a new lease of life.

It can be seen that India's ammunition reserves are not optimistic at all.

After only two days of fighting, nearly 5 percent of the air-to-air ammunition was used, and the consumption of medium-range air-to-air missiles was even higher, reaching almost 10 percent of the inventory.

You know, it's only been two days.

Now, how many more ammunition depots have been blown up, how long will the Indian Air Force be able to hold out?

In addition, the Indian Air Force will certainly not be able to devote all its forces to the west, and must leave enough troops to guard against China in the north.

Of course, there will be some stocks of missiles left.

If the inventory is used up, when Huaxia enters the war, let the fighters go into battle bare-handed?

In fact, the Indian authorities are well aware of the situation in the army and are also trying to figure out a way.

On the day the war broke out, the Indian ambassador to the United States went to the White House and the first question he asked was that he hoped that the United States would urgently provide a batch of ammunition.

Among them, AIM-120C/D is the main one.

To put it bluntly, the Indian Air Force has so many F-16E/F and F-35AI, and all of them are main fighters, and the missiles needed are certainly not a small number.

It's only been a day, and the US authorities have not yet given a clear answer.

In addition, India is also trying to procure missiles from Russia, that is, the R-30D used by the Su-77MKI.

Like the United States, Russia is also measuring the impact of the Indo-Pakistani war, so it has not given a clear answer for the time being on India's proposal to purchase missiles.

Of course, what India lacks is not only anti-aircraft missiles, but also ground-to-ground munitions.

It's just that, at the moment, it's not serious.

Why?

Up to now, the Indian Air Force has not carried out a real ground strike mission, and it has not consumed much ground munitions.