The only thing that may throw a spanner in the works and foil the plans is the detoriation in the thrust levels of the Adour engines on board the Jags. Had the Jags been reengined which in itself would have been prohibitively cost expensive, Jags could have been used to the hilt.
But we can always modify the system to interface and work with Su-30MKI. There is no better platform to lug these air launched drones around than the Sukhois.
Yes Rafales are also there but the small lateral separation between the hdps limits the volume of missiles and drop tanks that can be simultaneously carried .
View attachment 68434
Work is already going on counter swarm drone systems. Both hardkill and softkill.
The standoff with the China has afforded us show many opportunities and spurred our South Block mandarins into action. I hope the standoff continues . Without these standoff, the outlay for next defense budget would definitely have been reduced by a sizeable amount. Worse, there wouldn't have been this newfound sense of urgency that we are seeing now at all levels of the bureaucracy .