> Without local mfg made available like with the russian platforms, no foreign procured jet will see numbers such as su30 or mig 21 sort.
It's supposed to be a stop gap measure . At least that's the news in the media. As such the purchase will be restricted in numbers as far as F-35 goes if we go in for it & as far as the Su-57 goes it makes no sense to mfg it here when it's a WiP to begin with & MKI izing it will take a good 10-15 years apart from resources both men material & money to be thrown at it.
Further if we were to consider the timelines of our expected war against China that's at the end of the decade . The priority is therefore get a readymade platform at the earliest , train , develop tactics & deploy ASAP .
It it isn't possible , don't waste your time & resources , focus on what can be done & attained in that period & do it.
> IAF consciously will not buy a fighter jet that comes with operational strings attached to it dictated by foreign OEM country .
Isolate it from the rest as far as the F-35 goes & use the Rafale as the via media between F-35 & other FAs in our fleet networked into the IACCS & other such network grids.
The Rafales would be using NATO lines of communication & simultaneously can be rigged to communicate with the rest of our fleet thereby effecting co operative targeting something that the PAF has achieved (?).
Of course this is assuming the Rafales themselves are networked into those systems. If not the assumption is we could lean on DA & the French government to co operate. Otherwise wth are the IAF throwing in their lot for more Rafales ?
> If the platform is heavyweight class, that platform may be nuke delivery enabled ie will be considered part of triad (some nos)
Irrelevant. We already have air delivery platforms to handle that.
> if selling country is not willing to offer localisation [and / or] indigenous weapon integration, that jet will see low sqn nos aka few gold plated items.
Answered this one above.
> We are yet to see any diversion from our chalked out strategy irrespective of pressure from foreign countries (so far).
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Look I'm not at all in favour of either the F-35 or the Su-57 since both come with their baggage. At the same time I'm unaware if they would be inducted before the decade is out that too in full strength.
Inducting them later in my limited knowledge just doesn't solve the purpose while at the same time spending more time than necessary on negotiations whether price or technical is self defeating .
Can still understand technical discussions especially if it is for the F-35 w.r.t the carve outs we receive & more importantly how do we link it up with our network assuming we can or to the extent possible .
Time is of the essence & the more time we spend on these formalities the less time we get to actually properly induct this FA.
I think the above points are sort of proven and established rule for any import case now and will be bedrock for whatever 5th gen jet we get.
if USA agree to offer their run down product in their terms, it will be small 2 sqn. Same goes for rus 5th gen esp if tied with a 4.5gen.
If local mfg allowed that jet will see higher nos inducted & MRO set up.
If the product doesn't meet our requirements run down or not , better not to get into it.
Local mfg is the enemy of quick induction besides the equivalent program we're running.
The need of the hour is clarity of thought. What do we need the VLO / LO FA for , in what nos , in what shape , with what exceptions & how fast ? These are the only parameters we ought to consider as of now .
Add any more parameters to it & we risk jeopardizing the entire procurement as it then moves into MRFA / MMRCA territory. We know what that means don't we ?