Seriously, you think no one will build an assembly line to build 114 MRFA in India?
Till not even a few years ago Lockheed Martin was proposing to transfer the entire Fort Worth assembly line to India to produce F-16s. Nothing came out of it and they shifted it to Greenville, SC.
In case you didn't know, it was done in the past as well. For e.g. with the Jaguar. Assembly line at HAL was building Jaguars from the 1980s till as late as 2008, when the last of an additional order for 37 Jaguars (20 single seat and 17 dual seat) was placed by the IAF.
2008 was the year when the last one rolled off the HAL assembly line. By then it was retired from the French AF and I believe even the RAF was about to retire it.
The reason I point this out is because the HAL built Jaguars were done with almost no support except for a few parts, from BAe. DARIN, DARIN 2 and DARIN 3 upgrades were all done by HAL on their own, with minimal to no BAe involvement. Only because ToT was done with the setting up of the Jaguar assembly line.
And no, no Western manufacturer has India by the proverbial balls. There is a very likely scenario that there will be simply no MRFA at all. HAL may be asked to build another 2-3 squadrons of Su-30MKI to the Super Sukhoi standard and that may well be it till the Tejas Mk2 enters service.
There is, simply put, no manufacturer who would be as arrogant or blithe as you're sounding, when it comes to what may well be a USD 20 billion contract, if it ever gets signed.
This time around the partner choice will be left to the OEM. So then it's going to be the OEM's responsibility to deliver, along with their chosen partner. There is not going to be any mandate to go with HAL, unlike during MRCA.
The point is, that all makes no sense! In Germany we have a saying: Ihr tanzt auf zu vielen Hochzeiten gleichzeitig! und macht damit im Sinne alles, aber nichts richtig!
roughly translated as: You are dancing on too many weddings aka you are trying to do too many things at once!
And in doing so, you are doing everything but nothing right!
The point is just to again roughly summarise: The IAF has
NOW a dramatic shortage in fighters, already
NOW a downfall in Squadrons and this situation will even more dramatically increase in the upcoming years!
Therefore the IAF/India has the intention to order or already ordered and the following projects in the making:
- Tejas Mk.1A .... but issues with a too limited production capacity and the engine issue!
- Tejas Mk.2 ... again delayed until at best 2026 for roll-out ... so when will it be ready for service?
- Rafale / maybe 2nd Batch / for IN: ... negotiations on negotiations but again a discussion on wet-dreams about indigenous radar, indigenous weapons, maybe even indigenous engine in XX years and local production!?
- MRFA: still not decided on a type since again too much discussion on the same wet-dreams like the Rafale deal
- Su-30MKI-PLUS: ... now you are talking about engines and indigenous systems and no replacement in sight!
- AMCA: until today more a dream for in about a decade at best if ever!
- everything else is vaporware
So, even if you decide on a MRMF type today, when will it be ready? When will a proposed factory in India be ready ... in summary TOO LATE!
Even if you decide on additional Rafales today, when will it be ready? ... Dassault has an order backlog for years and IF, when will a proposed factory in India be ready ... in summary even more TOO LATE!
And then there are still stupid jokes, "but the PLAN will surely have its own J-35 not ready within the next three years!
In three years, you maybe haven't even still made a decision on a type ... in three years, surely no factory is ready ! So when do you think to get these then even older types??
That's what I mean with IT ALL MAKES NO SENSE!
