Or may be our fanboys here know more about the plane they have not even seen than the pilots who tested them
The feeling is mutual.
In the same way a few imported airforce fanboys wont believe the completley bonafide claims by IAF group captain and test pilot SUNEETH KRISHNA stating ,
"tejas is equal to upgradedd mirage-2000" .
And other authentic claims by NTSE chief Riaz Khokar who clearly said,
" even in mk1 tejas is better than Mirage-2000 in key respects and completely capable of doing the job in IAF". He expilictly stated that IAF can do well to order 100 tejas mk1s to immediately replace the aging Mig-21s rather than waiting for tejas mk2 providing for greater capacity production line to justify the investment..
In the same way no one questions rafale's capacities here.
In the same way no one accepts the claim that rafale can beat the Super sukhoi upgraded Su-30 MKis hands down to justify the price.
its all a matter of reading between the lines.
While import lobbyists cry there is no paucity of funds and the best plane should be bought whatever the cost, the sad reality is ,
"Last year, the government had to transfer Rs.7,800 crore earmarked for modernisation to meet rising fuel costs. "There is a crunch that no one can deny," laments a three-star IAF officer.
".
The reason for the rise in the bills is heavy Su-30 MKI numbers increasing and they being asked to shoulder the load of light fighters like tejas,..Adding another 126 MMRCA birds with 15000 dollar per hour flying cost fighter will be like shooting ourselves in the foot. When the same capacity can be had with much lower operating cost tejas fighters mixed with heavy Su-30 MKis.
And rafale's MLU costs will be another huge price shocker if we go by the mirage-2000 figure. So what does it all do to the IAF capacity?
Thats why we should rationalize our purcahse to justify the capability increment and mreaching the sanctioned 45 squadron strength wih class comparable 4.5th gen fighters in all of them rather than having ubber fancty fighters in just six of them eating all the money and 14 plus squadrons left with 50 years old jag and Mig airframes.
Ofcourse there are a few people here for whom the word budget doesn't matter. I am not writting for them.