By the time India acquires fourth-generation technology from France, France will likely be on the sixth generation, making the fourth generation obsolete. India will then need to pursue fifth and sixth-generation technology, and France will earn substantial revenue from India again, allowing them to invest in seventh-generation technology. The cycle will continue.
What Indian won't want to accept is the timeline in which they lag behind. Progress can only be made after acceptance. So luckily we have Indians as adversaries, otherwise with that much money anyone else can easily establish both qualitative and quantitative superiority like what China is against India.
India is acquiring 2 squadrons of Rafale M for the air wing of INS Vikrant. If fourth-generation tech is so "obsolete," why does the US Navy still operate hundreds of F/A-18 Super Hornets from the decks of its 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers? That's because their flying hours, maintainability, and serviceability are superior compared to even the F-35, whose flying costs are so high they aren't sustainable, even for the Americans. So, the notion that fourth-generation jets are obsolete is fundamentally flawed.
The Indian Air Force’s Rafale F3R, equipped with India-Specific Enhancements, is on par with the Rafale F4.2 being delivered today. Even the French Air Force is upgrading its older Rafales to this standard before transitioning to the Rafale F5, skipping the immediate need for a fifth-generation fighter.
As for fifth- and sixth-generation jets, it's laughable that Pakistanis are discussing them when their air force still largely operates third-generation fighters like the Mirage III, Mirage V, and F-7. Even their newer JF-17 Block I had serious limitations, lacking proper air-to-air capabilities. It took the JF-17 Block III just to rectify some of those issues, but it still uses an air-cooled AESA radar, which is known to be more maintenance-prone compared to the more advanced liquid-cooled AESA radars, like India's Uttam or the Israeli Elta ELM-2052 that we are integrating.
Even if Pakistan upgrades its fleet with Chinese jets like the JF-17 Block III, it still cannot match the combat-proven capabilities of India's aircraft or its advanced avionics. The JF-17 still lacks the sophisticated fly-by-wire technology and combat data-linking that India’s fleet of 50 Mirage 2000s possess, let alone the next-gen capabilities found in the Rafale.
m.economictimes.com
