Go to tejas IV and read page no. 252 report on tejas.
The funds were released in 1993 as you say to build protype but design was freezed?
when we released fund or not is a different debate but the fact remains ada/drdo promised jet in 1998/99 then in 2004/6 2010 and so on.
and still discussing on that is what i call e waste you can go on and do that...
i am repeating again i never said i want a low rcs stealthy mig 29 . I will explain you simply why i asked for a mig 29. but you must agree that tejas is inspired by mirage may be we can say kurt tank zindabad!
As you suggested that missiles hanging out do not increase rcs then my question is what does.
they certainly do increase the rcs but it doesn't matter much because we are not trying to make a stealthy jet but a low cost interceptor fighter. and to make a jet stealthy we have to reduce the rcs drastically.
about china i agree they do create a lot of hype and its working in their favor. On one hand they believe they are able to produce fifth gen jet and then they are buying sukhoi 35 when they are already builiding j-10 / j-11 their super duper jets. it clearly says until next decade su - 35 will be their best jet. though you may never know what future holds.
now you wanted a solution for design and all the stuff.right.
I am not a mechanical engineer here but my solution rise from the simple fact. IAF knew that they need mmrca and from 2006 - 2008 there was a clear neglect of tejas.
in 1998 america put sanction on india. and during that time mig was facing lot of difficulty to sustain. It is the order to upgrade iaf jets and indian navy's order of 45 mig 29 which kept it running for long.
during that time we could have based our jet on russian engines instead of ge.
mig was trying to develop mig 35 we could have got the design and other stuff from mig corp giving them money they needed and use their help to develop kaveri.
a twin engine config of tejas based on mig 29 will solve two problems first we will always have the option to power it with kaveri. due to its high load / range we could have shelved the rafale deal and instead use that money on tejas and amca.
mig 29 is a killer design and so is mig 35. they are basically mini sukhoi iaf said no not because they are not capable but since they wanted diversity in the platform they are buying and for western package.
i am a big fan of typhoon and mig 29 and everyone will agree both jets are best do fighter currently flying in the sky.
i am not against tejas but i am against the act that when we had time and money everything we needed then why not drop rafale and bring indian jet in sky. iaf is putting limits on tejas as they say they have very short range and that is true.also iaf relies on twin engine jet based on their past experience specially when it will be abt operation in enemy airspace. but if a twin engine jet could have been realised things might have been better and we might have order of 400 - 500 indian jets in the sky instead of 120 + .
Baahar se pura jet khareedne se achha joint venture hain. na se haan sahi..
Anyhow i just said i am not happy with what we are doing when we could have done better than this and tejas may be a great tech demonstrator but capability wise it is not going to add anything new in IAF nor it is fully indigenous.
and last but not the least we cannot do much that is true but then this forum is to discuss and think what we could have done discuss and then sleep over it right?
yes we can update it in batches but you cannot make a cotton turn into wool specially when you need it during cold times.
we shall understand why do we need these jets for to protect ourselves or to regain our lost pride i.e kashmir. If India wish to be sitting duck over kashmir then yes it is great jet go on.