You are misinformed on both bolded parts -
- No Airforce designs an aircraft, they are not aircraft designers. IAF is foolish to interfere in technical/science decisions. Its not their domain. Read my post again before jumping in. A pokeman player can win world-championship, but he is not game-engine developer. Users are not scientists/developers. Mig and Sukhoi has delivered faster because morons of IAF are not part of MiG design teams. Look at delays in FGFA. FGFA is delayed because morons in IAF are confused on how to design it, they are unable to make up their minds. This is why i said - the moment you invite pilots into aircraft design, you f8*ck up whole thing. Just like MiG/Sukhoi, let DRDO/ADA decide the design. Don't interfere in their job, it only delays everything by a decade. LCA's testing regime was originally 6 years(till 2008), but IAF added extra tests(because they had doubts on design). This delayed project by 6 more years.
- HAL is not part of LCA/ADA/DRDO design/development. I think you got confused by what HAL barks in public about LCA project. Those are just weapon dalaal's defaming LCA, to push foreign license-manufacture contracts. Don't take HAL seriously. LCH design is bigtime fu*cked up, Light combat helicopter concept was already outdated in 2010 itself. You will hear this after 8 years. Write this down.
IAF has no technological qualification to take technology roadmap decisions. This job should be outsourced to, retired DRDO/ADA guys. They can advise incompetent IAF better, on how technology is going to evolve in next 30 years, because they have worked in that domain. In USAF, pilots don't get appointment at senior research positions. USAF have appointed full-time, senior scientists for it, not junkie, half-educated tomboys. Even school dropout can be a pilot, but he can't be plane designer. Fighting and making weapons, are totally two separate domains of expertise. Remember the pokeman(its a computer game) example, i gave above.