When I said filler, I didn't mean it that way.
FGFA orders should be increased to 300, that's what I meant in my post. I. e. the numbers I gave should be ordered for any of the mentioned ACs. with that number of orders probably Russians will share more techs in same line as MKI. I know it will be huge money, but if we ditch the Rafale we can make it with that additional money.
Right now there is no clarity on FGFA. IAF is not interested in accepting PAKFA as their FGFA.
And FGFA engine will enter bench test only in 2018.
And chances of PAKFA with that engine getting exported to China in high hundreds is as real as the present talked about negotiation between china and Russia for Su-35 in hundreds with a better engine than the ones present in SU-30 MKI.
There is no bar on Russia to export PAKFA with a new engine to China in high hundreds as arms export is their most important strategic tool to maintain their fighter design and manufacture at cutting edge,
For this just a 100 plus order from IAF or even 300 as you mention is just not going to be enough.
So For the forex we spend we may not get any significant edge over china in long term unless we develop our own twin engined AMCA. And induct them in high hundreds.
I will never buy the argument that J20 will be superior to FGFA/PAKFA, it might be a little bit more stealthy(for which I have big doubts) and internal load wise, but on everything else no way..
You may not buy it Bu J-20 has serpentine stealth compliant air intake that covers the engine blades of both engines fully.
But PAKFA has straight air intakes that leave a portion of their engine blade to enemy ASEA radars.
So there is no way PAKFA is going to be more stealthy than the J-20. In engines , stealth coating , missiles and avionics J-20 may not match up to PAKFA. But this frontal RCS is an important draw back for PAKFA vs J-20.
Similarly it will take Chinese atleast 15 years before they could make an engine of the same capability which will go in FGFA, So I have no doubts that DRDO/GSRE will take any less time then Chineas, unless their is some rapid push from top level along side some good tot on FGFA engine. Yes Russian may sell the engines to Chinese, But we don't have much options anyway. I don't see any version of Kaveri cutting it for Stealth AC for future, even in twin config mode for medium class fighter jets.
Twin engined AMCA is being planned with two Kaveri future upgraded versions. There are no other engines in fray for AMCA unlike Tejas which had GE-404 as a back up. Because you can not rely on any other country to sell you engines for your stealth fighter.
And we can develop AMCA with whatever thrust version of Kaveri that is available . Even RAFALE has two 75 Kn engines only. Right now Kaveri can generate 70 plus KN thrust with just about 200 KG excess weight than the RAFALE engine.
All we need to do s to improve the service life and reliability by putting it through a series of flight qualification tests.
Kaveri marine engine has a TET(Turbine Entry temperature of 1540 deg). There are some reports that the recently developed Single crystal blades by DMRL presented in Aeroindia2013 has a much higher TET limit.
If this is true we are now at the 1990 level of western engine tech. So it is a commendable achievement in itself.
So it is not impossible to develop suitable engines for AMCA within a decade with much higher thrust.
We can always design AMCA with 20 percent less range or 20 percent less weapon load carrying capacity with kaveri engines and make it up with higher number of fighters .
Also with that big order we can actually get a deal for approx 2000-3000 FGFA engines for reserve use or to be used in our other ACs with good amount of Tot to maintain them at home. That will take care of any worry on the availability of engines for single engine AMCA.
I don't know any other country in the world that has bought and stored 3000 FGFA engines in one go.
Since we have engine design and fighter capacity the most viable and useful option is to produce AMCA with twin Kaveri engines in the long run,Which is easily doable as I explained above.
I'm ok even if the AMCA being twin engine(even that engine will be most probably American), but single engine AMCA looks good enough with FGFA engine for mass production.
Kaveri engine will enter flight trials within an year. So AMCA will be either based on Kaveri or the new tender called by GTRE for a JV with foreign engine makers whose end product engines total IP rights and vital manufacturing tech will be with india .
AMCA will enter trial phase with American GE-414 engines , but production version will have Kaveri.
Already V.K. Saraswath has talked about single engine stealth Tejas mk-3 which can easily be developed with the many concepts already done for the now dropped stealth MCA(which was upgraded to AMCA) . But IAF has shown no interest till today.
But once Tejas mk-2 enters service and proves itself ,situation may change and IAF may give it's whole hearted participation in Stealth tejas mk-3 with single or twin engines.
So tejas with single pilot and long range PGMs more than fit the IAF bill.
Thats is why I would say keep making the LCAs(twin seater versions, but as capable as LCA Mk2) at the rate of 24 per year(even if we have to make 300 of them) until we get the next 5th gen fighter development in air. These LCAs will serve atleast 15-20 good years in IAF as point defense ACs and adversary like Pakistan, then can slowly be replaced with AMCA.
Tejas is not a point defence fighter, From where did you get the idea, i don't understand!!!
4th and 4.5th gen fighters will be present in all airforces in huge numbers for at least another two or three decades.
Even after the induction of 5th gen fighters there will be roles for 4th and 4.5th gen fighters.
Even 5th gen fighters will fly with both stealth and non stealth modes with external weapons as per the mission's demand.
What is worse with tomorrows IRST tech and L and higher band ASEA radar tech most stealth fighters of 5th gen can easily be detected at the same distance needed for the 4.5th gen fighters of today ,by the time they enter service in huge numbers.
So stealth may even become just another survival aide as Israeli airforce expects to be in the future and game will revert back to pure aerodynamics over stealth.
IAf wants to keep much less capable Mirages and Jags for the next twenty years.
So the utility of tejas mk-2 which will have more or less the same capacity as that of grippen NG will be far more prolonged than 15-20 years time you expect.
While they(LCAs) themselves can replace the hawk trainer jets and some can be converted to other mission specific role(UAVs control via 2nd pilot, ground attack etc etc.) or we may even sell them at 2nd hand price and get some diplomatic advantage with countries which may need them at that time or those LCAs themselves can be converted into UAVs.
You don't need to convert tejas into UAV!!!!!!!!
As I said when Jags and Mirags will serve IAf for the next 20 years the need for tejas to serve as 4.5th gen medium multi role fighters will stretch over the next thirty years . Till the end of it's useful airframe life.
I mean having space for 2 seats from the start will have more possibilities as they will not be front line ACs anyway for IAF, we can even use that extra space(2nd seat) for some special EW role or extra fuel in later upgrades or any other upgrade which requires more space inside such as additional equipment to make them UAV etc..
Most of the ground attack roles will be done by long stand off distance PGMs , cruise missiles like brahmos and Nirbhay certainly not with fighters flying over ground targets dropping dumb bombs as in World war two in future as most of the pak china strategic targets will be heavily defended .
So in future there will be no need for tejas to carry second pilot as most of the ground attack will be with long range precision guided Munitions.
If IAf needs two pilot version, it can intimate HAl and get it done as there is already a two seater trainer version available.
PS: MIG21s have served us good, and so will the MIG29 for their price, if we don't overstretch their lifetime I believe.
