American pressure on India must be huge to buy F-35. For Trump America this is one way to compensate for huge trade deficit. Doubt the next administration will think differently.
Lets be honest - there is NO pressure on India to buy the F-35 and there never was. You have to give them credit where its due. Even though they have bought quite a bit of US equipment (C-17 Globemaster III, Apaches, P-8 & Predetor Drones), but they have stayed clear of their Military Jets for the very reason known as: End-User Equipment.
But the whole 5th Gen Topic has really picked up quite a lot of momentum in India in 2026.
Since last year's conflict & the a**-whopping they got at the hands of the PAF (with Chinese equipment), the big discussion is what is India/IAF planning on doing to close the gap on the potential arrival of the J-35A.
Now even though there hasn't been anything "Official", other than the tweet by the PM earlier this year - everything has been quite hush-hush on the whole J-35A acquisition.
Indians are so paranoid that you only hear their Defence Analysts talking about PAF Pilots currently getting trained on the J-35A - in China. And their source of info - [PDF]

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On a lighter note..., when I casually spoke about the possibility of the Su-57 being inducted by the IAF (with our PAF guys) - they completely disregarded it. One called it an
"over glorified Su-30" and that it does NOT bring any REAL threat.
We could expect IAF to have the Su-57 as early as Ops. Sindoor 3.0

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