https://bharatkarnad.com/2017/02/17/the-tragedy-of-tejas/
I want to know if Bharat Karnad is a Russian biased guy or not. allmost all of his post seem a little too pro russian to me. is it really so ? if not he makes me really nervous.
Can some senior member shed some light on it ?
Karnad is knowledgeable and reputed on defence and strategic affairs. He tends to take a hardline approach on many matters and they often move into the realms of impracticability.
He makes good point here, but fails to point out that the 20 Tejas on order are for the initial version Mk1 and the rest are for Mk1a for a total of 120.
He rants about
screwdrivergiri but fails to point out that we have been doing pretty much the same for Russian products as well and the after sales support and service has been horrendous to say the least. While talking about MIrages, he fails to mention how IAF pilots certified Mig-21 for service with 6 hours of flying and when these aircraft first arrived, the did not even have canon guns! He fails to point out how Soviets offered us Mig-29 to stunt the Mirage 2000 deal and the extremely low serviceability of these aircraft.
He fails to mention the large number of indigenous Helicopters in service with the services.
He rightly points out government apathy and import lobby that is out to stymie indigenous products, but surprisingly chooses to leave out Russian and Soviet influence on this- for instance he points out Hawk saving British Aerospace, but not Su-30MKI and Mig-29K saving Sukhoi and MiG corporations.
Regarding the LCA project, let us look at the Naval LCA. It's widely acknowledged that Navy is most
desi friendly of all services, they have a stellar record on indigenisation. Heck, we have ex-Navy Cmde Balaji heading the ADA, so it's clear how much importance navy attaches to LCA project. But they realised that naval LCA was just not upto it, it simply does not work, because it was not a fighter built from ground up, but a modification of the existing programme. Naval chief came out strongly against NLCA, but also pointed out that Navy will continue their commitment to the LCA programme and Naval LCAMK2 has their full support. ADA and HAL have acknowledged the deficiencies in NLCA and reiterated that it will continue to develop as a technology demonstrator.
Karnad makes valid points, but his own biases and myopia prevent him from being nuanced.