If given a choice, IAF would happily Walk Away from Tejas - Angad Singh - Defence Writer

[Pakistanithinktank]

Shake hands with China and buy J-10C.
China will also retire older J-11 in next 5 years. India should acquire them. I have more Indian friends than Pakistani and I always like to given them good advice.

 

[Ali_Baba]

Which why these import bahadurs should have Tejas shoved down their throat. IN and ICG had no problem with indigenisation of their platform programs and has the order book full for our shipyards. Building SSBNs to Frigates, hovercrafts. While IAF babus are busy looking for phoren. No support to local industries while allowing subpar imports. IA too, although much less than IN, have better indigenisation than IAF.

The IAF have clearly said they are ok with "local maal".. the problem is that India cannot make and deliver the "local maal" !!!!!

 

[Deino]

Lack of Confidence: When asked directly if he was confident about AMCA, he bluntly responded "Nope", stating that he has seen nothing to demonstrate that lessons have been learned or implemented from the delays and issues surrounding the LCA (Tejas) program 00-56.

And he's right! To be honest, I consider him one of the foremost experts on the Indian Air Force and the defense industry, who—understandably—rarely speaks out about the mistakes, shortcomings, and weaknesses of the Indian system, and when he does, he’s often most diplomatic.

He is an incredibly astute analyst, and I have considered him a good friend for years—someone whose opinion I hold in incredibly high regard!

In 2018, we actually met in person for the first time.

 

[Ali_Baba]

The biggest mistake India is making right now, is walking away from Russia. They are not ready to walk away from Russia yet, but they are doing it and that is another strategic mistake for them.

If the Indians get on board with both the Su-75 and Su57E platform with local Indian avionics suite and systems, that would fix their 470 unit problem that Yasser has highlighted. They are capable airframes when coupled local India avionics integrated with an Indian "datalink" would make capable platforms(of course the Russians have to agree to decouple the avionics from the airframe, but in todays world that is not a problem I reckon). Also upgrade the Su30MKI will a similar avionics suite using the same India "datalink". India will successfully build an entire avionics ecosystem that is totally Indian, that it can feed into the "AMCA" airframe and it can integrate that datalink with its NETRA platform for a coordinated setup.

Use the Russian platforms to develop an integrated Indian avionics platform and Datalink ecosystem that is fully integrated to work.

Russia Begins Construction of Redesigned Su-75 Checkmate Fifth-Generation Fighter Prototype

Russia has begun building the Su-75 Checkmate prototype, moving the stealth fighter closer to testing and potential export markets.

www.armyrecognition.com

Indians complain Russian avionics are no good, so they don't want to get the Su-75/57E for that reason, but why not develop an Indian avionics setup? i.e. decouple the airframe from the avionics, this is something India can do with her experience in the Jaguar Darin upgrade, Tejas etc. India has enough hardware/software coolies to to be ablet to do that now.

In parallel progress their tinker projects of Tejas, AMCA etc.

There is a pathway for India to fix their fleet issues, but what India lacks is strategic planning capabilities (thankfully!). The lack of coherent common sense with an actual game plan is shocking(thankfully!) !

 

[r3alist]

Yup, right now with two 6th Gen planes flying, can India even realistically match that level of tech in next 20 years? No. By then God only knows what China will have developed.

IAF missed a big trick here. They could have got the F-16 production line cheap off Lockheed who were willing to set up all global F-16 production in India and they could have got Rafale line 20 years ago.
If they had done that HAL would now be churning out 1 Sqd of Rafales and 1 Sqd of F-16Vs every year, IAF would be a very modern air force with compatibility with SE Asian and Gulf Air Forces. Back in the 70s and 80s they had two lines going for Jaguar and MIG-21 and churning them out like hot cakes, PAF at one point (pre F-16) was stuck with F-6s and Mirgae IIIs. How times have changed.

Not only now have the MIG-21s been retired and not replaced, but SU-30 is suffering from servicability issues and soon block obsolesence. Rafale order alone will simply not cut it. I see IAF going down to 22-23 Sqds in 5-10 years

I think we are headed into a very unfair world.

Technological progress always seems to create disproportionate outcomes, I am thinking here of the industrial Revolution where some countries are still catching up hundreds of years later

In the case of India it's all about how they have framed themselves relative to the world, plenty of empty and cheesy rhetoric but that sets the expectation.

The Indian CEO glut is a master stroke of coercion and influence, India gets the illusion of being around the top of the technology food chain, concentrated around individuals in any case have to answer to shareholders, and for this illusions they have no technology in their own country, most highlighted by not being able to create their own engine.



China is now on to 6th generation, that makes me wonder where they were looking with hundreds of 5th generation fighters being churned out.


And then we have bleeding edge technologies like quantum computing, networked military capabilities, space warfare...... If you have a Russian and then you have an American and then you have French systems are you not basically precluded from having networked capabilities to the best standard?

The angst that we hear now is basically not one issue but a type of epistemic collapse of Indian prowess and strategic thinking, they cannot understand what they have done why they have done so and then what to do next

 

[Gregor Clegane]

It is not IAFs decision to make though .
IAF job is to follow orders of it's masters (PM/NSA/MOD) and they have decided to support Tejas.
So IAF has no role in this.