Lets be honest,F16 block 70 is far more capable
Saying "Let's be honest" is not a suitable substitute for making a factual point.
No one here is saying that LCA is a better plane than F16. However, air fighting is not like arm wrestling. Planes don't fight it out feature versus feature. If it was, then instead of pilots, scientists would have fought wars on paper. Suddenly one scientist develops a new system, BAM! all other planes have lost the battle now!
A fighter is just one gear in a large war fighting machinery. The goal of war is not to get the most expensive gold plated gear. Planes are chosen based on doctrine and current air defense matrix, which involves ground radar, missile defense system, economic warfare, cyber warfare and diplomatic clout to shape global events.
If one gets in the business of getting the most expensive weapon every time, the budget will run out pretty soon.
@Pinky Chaudhary is right. For the price of one F16, you can have multiple LCAs. Is a single F16 better than multiple LCAs which we can replace it with? once we have many planes in the air, even the enemy gets the pressure to induct more planes to tackle our fleet. In order for this quantity war to be won, one cannot buy expensive shit all the time. Create one squadron with a long range radar Rafale leading the pack of 18 LCAs sharing radar data with them via tactical link. The LCAs can be used as missile carrying trucks.
By your logic, China should have given up its aspiration to be a world player, given that Chinese equipment is low quality and cheap. Or should China also stand in line to buy 500 F16s? The more you rely on other countries to solve your problems, the more your foreign policy becomes beholden to them. A fighter jet is not a knife. They can block access to spares whenever they want, so even if it were a better plane, it would be useless to us if it is made unavailable due to political disagreements.
This is the same country that blocked GPS signals during Kargil. People here have some short memories.
