India rejects USA F-35 offer

[EastWest]

Good decision...

We are already collaborating with Russia on FGFA..
and we are also having our own 5th gen fighter program...No need to get another costly platform..

 

[Kinetic]

I think though not for IAF but for IN we should go for limited number of F-35. A mix of F-35 and NLCA would have been best for IAC-2.

 

[lamdafriend]

India rejects USA F-35 offer

India has no plans as of now to either join the US-led joint strike fighter (JSF) programme or buy the F-35 'Lightning-II ' fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) when it finally becomes operational.

"We cannot have two types of FGFA. We have already launched preliminary work for our FGFA after inking the $295 million preliminary design contract (PDC) with Russia last month," said a top defence ministry official on Friday.

This comes in the wake of comments made by a top Pentagon official, undersecretary of defence for acquisition, technology and logistics Ashton Carter, in Washington that the US was open to Indian participation in its JSF project.

Interestingly, the comments came during a function where an aggressive sales pitch was made for India to select either the American F/A-18 'Super Hornet' ( Boeing) or F-16 'Falcon' ( Lockheed Martin ) over their European rivals in the ongoing IAF's medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) contest.

The other 4.5-generation fighters in the hotly-contested race to bag the $10.4 billion MMRCA project, under which 18 jets will be bought offthe-shelf and another 108 will be manufactured in India under transfer of technology, are Eurofighter Typhoon, Swedish Gripen (Saab), French Rafale (Dassault) and Russian MiG-35 (United Aircraft Corporation ).

The IAF force matrix for the coming years revolves around the 270 Sukhoi-30 MKIs contracted from Russia for around $12 billion, the 126 MMRCA and 120 indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, apart from upgraded MiG-29 s and Mirage-2000s.

In the decades ahead, the advanced stealth FGFA to be developed with Russia will be the mainstay of India's combat fleet. "Our FGFA will be cheaper than the F-35 . Moreover , the intellectual property rights of the FGFA will equally and jointly vest on both India and Russia, with full access to the source code and the like," said another senior official.

With a potent mix of super-manoeuvrability and supersonic cruising ability , the 'swing-role' FGFA will of course not come cheap. The cost of designing, infrastructure build-up , prototype development and flight testing has been pegged at around $11 billion, with India and Russia chipping in with $5.5 billion each.

Over and above this, each of the 250-300 FGFA India hopes to begin inducting from 2020 onwards will cost around $100 million each. In all, India will spend upwards of $35 billion over the next two decades in its biggest-ever defence project till now.

With own 5G jet plan, India 'rejects' US offer - The Times of India

i dont think this news credible

 

[lamdafriend]

I think though not for IAF but for IN we should go for limited number of F-35. A mix of F-35 and NLCA would have been best for IAC-2.

to bring on the lca + naval lca in desired numbers,hal must consider increasing its infrastructure.now the rate of production is 10 planes per yearr,with plans to increase it t0 12 per year.further,there are several other products under belt too.

 

[lamdafriend]

Good decision...

We are already collaborating with Russia on FGFA..
and we are also having our own 5th gen fighter program...No need to get another costly platform..

i don't beleive in this news seriously
even if this was true,i am sure that ministry of defence of india won't be dumb enough to 'reject' this order.such a machine would be an asset and provide key for several technologies

 

[Agnostic_Indian]

i don't beleive in this news seriously
even if this was true,i am sure that ministry of defence of india won't be dumb enough to 'reject' this order.such a machine would be an asset and provide key for several technologies

key for technology ? lol..

they won't give you the KEY..rather they will take you for a ride and will dump you when you are are in trouble.

 

[lamdafriend]

key for technology ? lol..

they won't give you the KEY..rather they will take you for a ride and will dump you when you are are in trouble.

once you get a plane at hand and takes it your home,don't worry brother your engineers will get the 'key'!!(guess how?)

again i believe the news is a trash

 

[Ammyy]

I think though not for IAF but for IN we should go for limited number of F-35. A mix of F-35 and NLCA would have been best for IAC-2.

Agreed ... I dnt think N-PakFa or N FGFA will be ready at the time of IAC-2 so 40 F35 is good option

 

[EastWest]

i don't beleive in this news seriously
even if this was true,i am sure that ministry of defence of india won't be dumb enough to 'reject' this order.such a machine would be an asset and provide key for several technologies

As some one pointed out in previous posts...the proper news should have been 'IAF rejects F-35' and not india..

Indian Navy is seriously considering F-35 for IAC-II and IAC-III..so we might get that aircraft(actually chances are more coz there are no aircrafts in F-35 category in naval version)..

but from IAF pov getting another platform in already crowded IAF inventory doesnt suit our strategic and more importantly our financial needs..

 

[Markus]

I am all game for Indian navy buying one (or two) squadrons of STOVL F-35 off-the-shelf.

 

[lamdafriend]

I am all game for Indian navy buying one (or two) squadrons of STOVL F-35 off-the-shelf.

is f-35 naval,stovl or catobar????

 

[lamdafriend]

what's up with the mca ? any news ?heard that a team of hal guys are already in russia and expect the flight of fgfa in a few months

 

[sancho]

is f-35 naval,stovl or catobar????

Both:

F35 B - STOVL
F35 C - CATOBAR


But if at all IN will be interested in the C for the new carriers, but at the current rate of development delays and cost increasings, I don't see a reason to go for them.
India can have naval Pak Fa, FGFA, later possibly even AMCA, so more than enough choice for a 5. gen carrier fighter and in the meantime a naval MMRCA simply makes more sense.