F-35 and Indian Airforce an unlikelycombination

sukhoi30mki

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Lockheed Martin's push to win
a contract in India with its
F-35 JSF looks unlikely as the
Ministry of Defense is unlikely
to bend backwards and start
the competition all over again. If India decides to consider the
F-35 for the MMRCA
competition than the
aircraft will have to perform
various evaluation trails
which will take another 1-2 years. Also it must be noted
that the F-35 is
still underdevelopment so it
won't be able to perform on
various parameters. We also
know that the IAF placed great deal of importance
on kinematic performance of
the aircraft with
basic requirement of 9G's. The
F-35 is designed primarily to
use its sensors and stealth to achieve its targets rather
than go around dog fighting.
At the end the F-35 is unlikely
to match
the kinematic performance of
Eurofighter Typhoon or the Dassault Rafale, though
the F-35A variants can achieve
9G's. Second issue is that of
the time-frame, the F-35
program if all goes well from
now is likely to be combat
ready only around 2016
where as the IAF wants MMRCA fighters in service by
around 2014. Also given the
hundreds of billion already
spent and thousands of units
already on order, IAF is
unlikely to get preferential delivery. Also MMRCA
requirements states that
atleast 108 aircraft's to be
manufactured in India along
with 100% transfer of
technology. Given the American sensitivity to such
high profile weapons, its
unlikely that Lockheed Martin
will be allowed to do so. Such
a privilege is not even
available to existing partner nations. Also existing issues
with CISMOA and LSA are not
going to help the cause. The
fundamental mistake which
Lockheed Martin did was not
to offer the F-35 for MMRCA 2 years ago when MMRCA trials
were about to begin along
with the F-16. If it was done
so than the IAF would have
got a chance to analyse the
aircraft and its advantage. F-35 also has a very little
chance of being with the IAF
even outside the MMRCA
competition as IAF has
already pledged resources in
the AMCA and FGFA programs and rumors are also in the air
that India is likely to
take interest in MiG's 5th
generation program. With a
firm 5th generation aircraft
plan there is no room for F-35 with the Indian Airforce. The
only other way the F-35 could
sport Indian roundels is if the
Indian Navy selects it for the
IAC-2 which will be catapult
equipped carrier so the F-35C could have a chance here but
than again the order is not
expected to be massive like
MMRCA
 

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