A service decides what is the distinction is and what to call it.
- We call INS Vikramadithya a 45k ton ship 'Aircraft carrier' when USN calls ships with same capability as 'amphibious assault ship'. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America-class_amphibious_assault_ship)
- Barak 8 is called Long Range SAM by Navy and Medium Range SAM by Air force
- Rafale is called by French as Swing role which is essentially multi role.
If thats the process we select things, F-16IN would be selected as winner in MMRCA.
Requirements of the service comes first then comes price.(Todays indian context)
I don't see much difficulty in doing this since all the requirements at system level is already there. We have many suitable air surveillance radar and also multi mode radar in production. Astra is almost done. Even indigenous RF seeker is coming soon. C2 is not even an issue. High mobility vehicles already there. DRDO is 2-3 years away from production. First test can happen any time.
Tender for fabrication 4/2015 -
http://www.drdo.gov.in/drdo/tenders/viewTender.jsp?paramMicro=10216
It is the duty of the services to ready a plan B.
- In 2010 IAF global floated RFI for MR SAM saying Barak 8 is not going as planned. But plan A is now entering service.
- Around 2000 when Trishul project failed Barak 1 was the plan B, which they took.
- IAF's Palitus basic trainer is a plan B when HAL failed to deliver on time.