Really sir? You think the IN are going to be interested in a "pimped up" 4.5 gen fighter (as lovely as she is) to fly off her next generation of carriers whose induction will begin only in the mid 2020s and will be expected to serve for over 30 years?
Well they even take low capable 4th gen fighters for the first to carriers and NLCA as we know will arrive only beyond 2020 to, which makes the Silent Hornet far more capable than anything Indian Navy will have right?
![Smile :) :)](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/smile.gif)
So, yes they will be interested in it, which however doesn't mean that they will put all their hopes only on the F18SH, but as a secondary fighter. be it next to F35Cs, N-FGFAs or N-AMCAs. As I told you before, it's the most cost-effective choice if we have to buy back fighters for EMALS and it's also a logical choice to base a naval AMCA on, if we could get a team up with Boing approved. That's practically what Boeing is offering S. Korea, a KFX based on the F18SH and possibly could be an offer to DRDO too, which again shows that it makes more sense to develop AMCA as carrier fighter first, but that's another issue.
The F-18's future growth is limited when compared to something like the Rafale but even then the Rafale's longevity/relevance is barely a decade longer than the F-18s would be.
Only based on the production timeline, but not on technical upgrades since the USN will keep using it in high numbers for decades too.
Rafales potential in India is far lower today, than it was in 2012 or before, because Dassault delayed things so far, till more options were available. NLCA, EMALS, US government more open to share and the Russians were always an option anyway. Just sad, when you consider what potential Rafale and France as a whole had in India, but that's how it is now.