@ WHITESMOKE
I guess I have mentioned most of the things you talked about in my reply to India Army, my point is that there is a serious lack of reality in our thinking and our assement of what is doable and what is needed.
As I often showed on PDF, there is no requirement for a second stealth fighter in IAF, since it won't offer any operational advantages over FGFA, the only point is, it is "more Indian", but that imo is not a good reason to waste billions of taxpayers money, that could be used for more important defence related procurements.
So this is just another development, for the wrong reasons!
The on need for AMCA is in IN as a carrier fighter for IAC 2, especially since we don't have a 5th gen fighter for them so far and because they will be the spearhead to project power in future. IN has already stated their interest in such a fighter, but we doing the same mistake again that we did with LCA, making it too complicated by first developing an airforce version and then re-design ot to a naval version.
Keep in mind that ADA messed up the navalising of LCA as well and navalising an AMCA, even for the possible use with catapults is waaaaaay more difficult, so all those who think we have gained anything for a naval AMCA, because we now have N-LCA, are highly mistaken!!!
I'm sorry, but so far I don't see the changes, we still are at the basics, haven't achieved anything yet, but keep dreaming about things that even are difficult for countries that are far ahead of us. Keep it simple and think about the needs of the forces first!
Simple example, DRDO messed up radar and engine developments and still are dreaming about AESA radar, 5th cockpit for LCA MK2 and even a stealthy MK3, at the same time ADA made the whole LCA project even more complicated, by developing N-LCA at the side, which requirers to mix up requirements of IAF and IN for the MK2.
The better choice would have been, to integrate not only a foreign engine to LCA MK2, but also a foreign AESA (logically Rafales, since we produce it under licence in India). Not to develop N-LCA, but to increase the number of Mig 29s (and now comes the important part!) with higher Indian content!
IN is the biggest customer of Mig 29Ks, even more than RuN will operate, so why didn't we go for an Indian radar, why don't we think about integrating Kaveri into Mig 29s?
So instead developing a single engine less capable carrier fighter and making LCA development more complicated, DRDO should develop the indigenous AESA to replace Zhuk ME radars in the Migs, just like they should focus on improving and integrating Kaveri engine to replace RD33 engines. That would make our own developments useful within this decade and not only in the next one and more importantly, makes us / IN less dependen on Russia too.
At the same time, the LCA development would completely focused on IAFs requirement only and would be way easier as well.
But that is the problem, we (ADA/DRDO mainly) don't think about small steps, because a Russian fighter with Indian radar and engine might be an achievement, but still is a Russian fighter, no matter how much more capable it would be. It's more prestigious to develop an "indigenous carrier fighter" for an "indigenous carrier" and to claim that we have achieved something that only very few other countries can either.
