Think logically people IN is never going to have dozen of supercarriers that justifies having a dedicated twin engine fighter project.TEDBF/ORCA will cost easily over 5 BILLION USD for procurement and development and all.That money is better utilised purchasing ADVANCED SUPER HORNETS with a sprinkle of GROWLERS.And the procurement might not even cost us 5 billion USD.The cost at which USN is procuring Hornets is dirt cheap(less than 60 million per jet).
IN will always operate multiple carriers . Third carrier will come even if a bit late. And if Chinese are going to build more carrier India will follow suit.
Even if they are mid size (40-60k) carriers still 3 IN carriers will share 60-70 birds among them plus some for reserve some for training and some for islands deployment. Remember tedbf will replace all mig29k too. So there are already 100birds required plus some exports.
F18 procurement for 57 jets jets will run into 10 billion dollars plus. They will need modifications for ski jump operation plus to fit the lift of Indian carriers that will cost in billions. Then support package will cost into more billions for Boeing (which btw could go bankrupt unless us govt saves it) .
Tedbf is a bargain at 5 billion + 2 billion for support package in comparison as all the money will flow in desh except for engine. And it will pave the way for naval amca.
And whats the guarantee that the TEDBF will meet all the development and production timelines(which are already ridiculously tight)
Same question can be asked about mwf or amca.
But the fact is that all components for Tedbf are already ready or in development. Engine is already there. Radar will be uttam , ew suite will be same with mwf along with digital rwr / spj/ maws. Display , sensor fusion will be similar to mwf. Weaponary will be similar.
All these similarities will not only save a lot of time but also cost as uttam will also be build for mwf and amca + tedbf so 200+150+150= 500 uttam at the least. Same with all other components they will become cheaper with scale.
That is the whole logic of tedbf and orca to build in parallel with lca/mwf and amca. This will not only mature India aerospace industry but will build huge internal market chain for almost 750 jets.
( 123 lca mk1/mk1a which will be upgraded mid life+ 200 mwf + 150 amca possible more later+ 150 tedbf+ 100 orca ). That will bring economy of scales for most components including engine maintenance and overhaul of f414 and later k9/k10.
Whats the point of developing a 4th gen or 4++ category aircraft into 2030s when whole world will transition into 5++ or some countries(US/UK/France-Germany) into the 6th gen aircraft age.TEDBF will be at a terrible disadvantage.And it will serve well into 2060s and god knows what will be the threat matrix then.We need to make long term choices.
6th gen is not even defined yet. All concepts of 6th gen are actually 5th gen++.
The need for tedbf is because amca is air Force varient. Navy wanted to develop naval amca first and then convert it into amca for airforce. But iaf didn't agree as it wants amca fast .
Navy knows building a naval jet from airforce varient is rarely successful. So it knows naval amca will have to be build from scratch and will take much longer ( by 2045-50) so in the meantime it is going for tedbf which it believes will come faster for the reasons I explained above all components are there. And it will be cheaper to own and maintain (no dollars required) . And it will be the step forward towards naval amca. Hence it is coming. US Navy will keep operating f18 along with f35 till 2070. So IN can also deploy tedbf with naval amca and naval aura in future.