MMRCA 2.0: News & Discussions

[vampyrbladez]

736 TRM with a track range of 150 km for 1m2 target was in 2015. Lot of improvements have been done after that even on the GaAs version. On the other hand GaN is getting matured. There is a high chance that later batches of MK1A will get this Uttam radar, since flight trials on Tejas prototypes are expected to be completed in 2022.

Need more data on that.

 

[aditya10r]

It makes sense if HAL has the capability to produce 50 - 60 fighter jets in a single year ... It will take another 5 years to reach that capacity ....

Considering falling IAF squadron size ... IAF have to source fighter jets from multiple sources apart from IAF ...

With proper amount of funding and orders HAL can deliver 24 aircrafts per year.Plus quality hasnt been an issue.
And 10 squadrons(180 jets) will be delivered till 2029/30,When MWF comes online it will be produced.So 18-24 jets per year of production is enough for now.When MWF comes we may have to scale up production but thats far off from now.Our short term focus should be on Tejas mk1a and Force multipliers and Sukhoi upgrade.MWF and ORCA are medium term goals.

 

[bose]

With proper amount of funding and orders HAL can deliver 24 aircrafts per year.Plus quality hasnt been an issue.
And 10 squadrons(180 jets) will be delivered till 2029/30,When MWF comes online it will be produced.So 18-24 jets per year of production is enough for now.When MWF comes we may have to scale up production but thats far off from now.Our short term focus should be on Tejas mk1a and Force multipliers and Sukhoi upgrade.MWF and ORCA are medium term goals.

Very true there is no quality issue with Tejas, there is not a single crash till date ...

IAF have to fill the gap very very soon in another 2 - 3 years time ... Tejas mk1a is one of the option and Tejas MWF also ...

Tejas mk1A + Tejas MWF + AMCA is the way forward for IAF ...

But HAL is not yet able to scale up the production as expected ~ 24 aircraft / year to 36 aircraft / year ... still it is not good to fill the numbers...

We need high impact fighter jets such as SU 30 MKI & Rafale in good numbers [ ~ 400 no's ] to take on both China & Pakistan at same time ... We want them in very quick time of 2 - 3 years ...

I have a gut feeling that there will be a showdown with Pakistan / China in another 2 - 3 years ... Is IAF is prepared for it ?

 

[fire starter]

Very true there is no quality issue with Tejas, there is not a single crash till date ...

IAF have to fill the gap very very soon in another 2 - 3 years time ... Tejas mk1a is one of the option and Tejas MWF also ...

Tejas mk1A + Tejas MWF + AMCA is the way forward for IAF ...

But HAL is not yet able to scale up the production as expected ~ 24 aircraft / year to 36 aircraft / year ... still it is not good to fill the numbers...

We need high impact fighter jets such as SU 30 MKI & Rafale in good numbers [ ~ 400 no's ] to take on both China & Pakistan at same time ... We want them in very quick time of 2 - 3 years ...

I have a gut feeling that there will be a showdown with Pakistan / China in another 2 - 3 years ... Is IAF is prepared for it ?

lol PAF now don't have guts to face IAF again after the f16 shoot down it is evident from the fact that our UAV are flying freely over their airspace. regarding China it is not going to happen.

 

[aditya10r]

Very true there is no quality issue with Tejas, there is not a single crash till date ...

IAF have to fill the gap very very soon in another 2 - 3 years time ... Tejas mk1a is one of the option and Tejas MWF also ...

Tejas mk1A + Tejas MWF + AMCA is the way forward for IAF ...

But HAL is not yet able to scale up the production as expected ~ 24 aircraft / year to 36 aircraft / year ... still it is not good to fill the numbers...

We need high impact fighter jets such as SU 30 MKI & Rafale in good numbers [ ~ 400 no's ] to take on both China & Pakistan at same time ... We want them in very quick time of 2 - 3 years ...

I have a gut feeling that there will be a showdown with Pakistan / China in another 2 - 3 years ... Is IAF is prepared for it ?

400 Of Rafale and Su-30mki isnt gonna happen.That basically translates to 7 squadrons(126 jets) of Rafale and we currently have 2 squadrons on order(36jets).
36 is the final number that we have and any more of imports will cripple the budget for a long time.Already the budget has depressed the purchasing power of all three services.
Tejas is the only viable solution to all our problems.Short term solution is Tejas mk1a,mid term is Mk2 MWF and long term is AMCA.A single Tejas mk1a,if ordered in good numbers say 140-150 from current 83 will reduce the price of jet thanks to economies of scale and it can be produced at 24 per year from 2024 when MK1A comes online.Thats enough time frame to build up Tejas mk1a and Mk2 will be around the corner by the time Mk1a orders will be completed(around 2029-2030).

Other thing is operating rafale is gonna be extremely expensive.It costs over 20000 USD per hour to operate and with small fleet and specific upgrades i expect IAF rafales to cost around 40000-50000 USD per hour to operate compared to Sub 5000 USD for tejas mk1a and for Mk2 it shouldnt be more than 10000 USD per hour inflation adjusted.So a single rafale will cost us 20 million USD per year to operate and 2 squadrons 720 million USD per year.For that much we can purchase 12 Tejas at present price.And Rafale will be paid in FOREX but for the most part tejas can be paid in Rupee.

Integrating local weapons could also prove to be problematic with rafale depends if french will share the source codes or not but wont be a problem with tejas.SFDR and Astra Mk-1 and MK2 will do the job for most part in future.Our stocks of Derby python should be expiring in few years if not used up already.
Plus with dual Ejector racks if made available for Tejas Mk1a will make it a great multi role aircraft.Able to carry 4 BVRAAM 2 WVRAAM 2 500kg PGM 1 centerline tank and 1 towed EW.Thats really good.Over 500km of combat range will put most of Paki targets within range.

At this point IAF should simply order 12 NETRA Awacs.Shouldnt cost more than 2 billion USD and 12 Airbus A330 MRTT(though i genuinely believe it needs 24) for about 4 billion and 150 Tejas mk1a and go ahead with a comprehensive upgrade for Su-30mki.

 

[bose]

lol PAF now don't have guts to face IAF again after the f16 shoot down it is evident from the fact that our UAV are flying freely over their airspace. regarding China it is not going to happen.

Under estimating enemy is not a good idea ... Pakistan will try to hold on to India for 7 - 10 days until uncle comes over and try to broker peace between two ... One need to understand the Pakistani mindset ... for them victory is fighting India and derail its economic growth ...

Now IAF have to factor the China post COVID-19 ... China is up for massive loss of production due to movement of industry out to India & other countries ... China will try to scare India and may get into limited engagement in a calibrated fashion ...

 

[Sridhar_TN]

400 Of Rafale and Su-30mki isnt gonna happen.That basically translates to 7 squadrons(126 jets) of Rafale and we currently have 2 squadrons on order(36jets).
36 is the final number that we have and any more of imports will cripple the budget for a long time.Already the budget has depressed the purchasing power of all three services.
Tejas is the only viable solution to all our problems.Short term solution is Tejas mk1a,mid term is Mk2 MWF and long term is AMCA.A single Tejas mk1a,if ordered in good numbers say 140-150 from current 83 will reduce the price of jet thanks to economies of scale and it can be produced at 24 per year from 2024 when MK1A comes online.Thats enough time frame to build up Tejas mk1a and Mk2 will be around the corner by the time Mk1a orders will be completed(around 2029-2030).

Other thing is operating rafale is gonna be extremely expensive.It costs over 20000 USD per hour to operate and with small fleet and specific upgrades i expect IAF rafales to cost around 40000-50000 USD per hour to operate compared to Sub 5000 USD for tejas mk1a and for Mk2 it shouldnt be more than 10000 USD per hour inflation adjusted.So a single rafale will cost us 20 million USD per year to operate and 2 squadrons 720 million USD per year.For that much we can purchase 12 Tejas at present price.And Rafale will be paid in FOREX but for the most part tejas can be paid in Rupee.

Integrating local weapons could also prove to be problematic with rafale depends if french will share the source codes or not but wont be a problem with tejas.SFDR and Astra Mk-1 and MK2 will do the job for most part in future.Our stocks of Derby python should be expiring in few years if not used up already.
Plus with dual Ejector racks if made available for Tejas Mk1a will make it a great multi role aircraft.Able to carry 4 BVRAAM 2 WVRAAM 2 500kg PGM 1 centerline tank and 1 towed EW.Thats really good.Over 500km of combat range will put most of Paki targets within range.

At this point IAF should simply order 12 NETRA Awacs.Shouldnt cost more than 2 billion USD and 12 Airbus A330 MRTT(though i genuinely believe it needs 24) for about 4 billion and 150 Tejas mk1a and go ahead with a comprehensive upgrade for Su-30mki.

Assuming that Tejas is equivalent to the rafale is foolhardy. Why do people make such comments like we can buy 12 tejas for one rafale? It’s comparing apples to oranges literally.

Rafale is being purchased for an entirely different reason. It’s EW system and weapons delivery is far ahead of what tejas ever will be. More importantly it’s used specifically for countering any capability China will come into possession going forward with their J20s and stealth fighters coming online.

It’s dumb and stupid to think that tejas can fill the gap of a capability that rafale brings in.

Unless amca lives up to the hype and provides such a capability, India needs the rafale. Developing such capability will take time, and India needs to go beyond the defense budget to fund that capability. Until then, If India is to hold off a two front attack with the pakis and Chinese, the tejas just isn’t up for it.

Unfortunately for the fucked up situation India finds itself, all it’s neighbors have hostile intentions. Now is not the time to dick around and try to save money. Yea, investment needs to happen, but not at the cost of compromise in national security.

 

[aditya10r]

Assuming that Tejas is equivalent to the rafale is foolhardy. Why do people make such comments like we can buy 12 tejas for one rafale? It’s comparing apples to oranges literally.

Rafale is being purchased for an entirely different reason. It’s EW system and weapons delivery is far ahead of what tejas ever will be. More importantly it’s used specifically for countering any capability China will come into possession going forward with their J20s and stealth fighters coming online.

It’s dumb and stupid to think that tejas can fill the gap of a capability that rafale brings in.

Unless amca lives up to the hype and provides such a capability, India needs the rafale. Developing such capability will take time, and India needs to go beyond the defense budget to fund that capability. Until then, If India is to hold off a two front attack with the pakis and Chinese, the tejas just isn’t up for it.

I have 0 doubt that rafale is the best present day 4.5+ gen fighter aircraft made till date.It has adequate real estate and good fuel capacity.Its EW is great and fine.Hell if we had the money i would have asked for 10 Rafale squadrons but present day economic realities are different.We have to make do.We dont have an option today.

AMCA is still 15-20 years away so there is no point discussing about it.Tejas fits the bill,it may not be the best aircraft out there but it is good enough against J-10,JF-17 and F-16s that it will encounter.It is good enough.It fits the bill and it is easier on the pocket thats why it is logical to procure it in numbers.Rafale or for that matter any imported jet is now out of the question.Any import will cost us over 150 million USD per plane.

 

[Sridhar_TN]

I have 0 doubt that rafale is the best present day 4.5+ gen fighter aircraft made till date.It has adequate real estate and good fuel capacity.Its EW is great and fine.Hell if we had the money i would have asked for 10 Rafale squadrons but present day economic realities are different.We have to make do.We dont have an option today.

AMCA is still 15-20 years away so there is no point discussing about it.Tejas fits the bill,it may not be the best aircraft out there but it is good enough against J-10,JF-17 and F-16s that it will encounter.It is good enough.It fits the bill and it is easier on the pocket thats why it is logical to procure it in numbers.Rafale or for that matter any imported jet is now out of the question.Any import will cost us over 150 million USD per plane.

What other choice do we have?? Send fighter pilots in the tejas to their deaths?
The tejas won’t be able to handle fighters like J20s and there is serious doubt about its ability to take on F16s. As partriotic as we would like to be, unless tejas mk2 shows up with an awesome ew system, avionics and weapons delivery..it just doesn’t fit the bill. The next 20years cannot be relied on tejas alone. Like I said, we are paying for years of neglect. But at this point, if both our neighbors were not hostile, we could have invested in the tejas for a good end product.
Unfortunately, as the Chinese are going to apply more pressure going forward, because of all the investment coming into India, you need real muscle. Feel the pinch and go for the rafales, as well as investing in amca and tejas. We need to go beyond regular defense budget for funding amca and tejas.

Else we face the music. We should be ready to face the heat and take hits and not complain about the iAf being incapable.

It sucks..but this is the clusterfuck we are in. Unfortunately, I don’t any better ideas. It’s frustrating.

 

[aditya10r]

What other choice do we have?? Send fighter pilots in the tejas to their deaths?
The tejas won’t be able to handle fighters like J20s and there is serious doubt about its ability to take on F16s. As partriotic as we would like to be, unless tejas mk2 shows up with an awesome ew system, avionics and weapons delivery..it just doesn’t fit the bill. The next 20years cannot be relied on tejas alone. Like I said, we are paying for years of neglect. But at this point, if both our neighbors were not hostile, we could have invested in the tejas for a good end product.
Unfortunately, as the Chinese are going to apply more pressure going forward, because of all the investment coming into India, you need real muscle. Feel the pinch and go for the rafales, as well as investing in amca and tejas. We need to go beyond regular defense budget for funding amca and tejas.

Else we face the music. We should be ready to face the heat and take hits and not complain about the iAf being incapable.

Okay.

So Where is the money to purchase 36-54(2-3 squadrons) of Rafale?

______________________________

ALready the GST collection has shrunk by 30000 crore in just 1 month.There is no money to go and wont be for another 2-3 years.

We should purchase what we can afford not something we cant.

_______________________________

Chinese threat and J-20 is a real problem and its only going to get worse.But we still have time enough to deal with them.Chinese dont have lots of runways in tibet and xinjiang and aircrafts cant take off with meaningful payload.With adequate numbers of fighter aircrafts and Proper airbases in north india and North east coupled with AWACS and MRTT aircrafts we can keep them at bay for atleast 2 weeks in a 2 front war(provided we have 45-50 squadrons) and as for pakistan it only has 70 odd F-16s which can be dealt with 270 Su-30mki 40+ Mirage 2000 60 Mig-29 and tejas with good enough BVR missiles should deal with it.Jf-17s can be dealt pretty easily.

 

[Sridhar_TN]

I have 0 doubt that rafale is the best present day 4.5+ gen fighter aircraft made till date.It has adequate real estate and good fuel capacity.Its EW is great and fine.Hell if we had the money i would have asked for 10 Rafale squadrons but present day economic realities are different.We have to make do.We dont have an option today.

AMCA is still 15-20 years away so there is no point discussing about it.Tejas fits the bill,it may not be the best aircraft out there but it is good enough against J-10,JF-17 and F-16s that it will encounter.It is good enough.It fits the bill and it is easier on the pocket thats why it is logical to procure it in numbers.Rafale or for that matter any imported jet is now out of the question.Any import will cost us over 150 million USD per plane.

On a side note, I spoke to a colleague who used to work at ADA in Bangalore. He says that the total investment in the tejas programmer would not even add up to 2 billion dollars so far. It says a lot about our strategy. We fucked it up big time. For all these decades.
Now we face the heat.

 

[Sridhar_TN]

Okay.

So Where is the money to purchase 36-54(2-3 squadrons) of Rafale?

______________________________

ALready the GST collection has shrunk by 30000 crore in just 1 month.There is no money to go and wont be for another 2-3 years.

We should purchase what we can afford not something we cant.

_______________________________

Chinese threat and J-20 is a real problem and its only going to get worse.But we still have time enough to deal with them.Chinese dont have lots of runways in tibet and xinjiang and aircrafts cant take off with meaningful payload.With adequate numbers of fighter aircrafts and Proper airbases in north india and North east coupled with AWACS and MRTT aircrafts we can keep them at bay for atleast 2 weeks in a 2 front war(provided we have 45-50 squadrons) and as for pakistan it only has 70 odd F-16s which can be dealt with 270 Su-30mki 40+ Mirage 2000 60 Mig-29 and tejas with good enough BVR missiles should deal with it.Jf-17s can be dealt pretty easily.

Honestly, I used to believe in that optimism a while back. Just like you are Doing right now. It’s good.

But you realize soon that facing China is going to be a whole different beast. They can build airbases and infra far faster than we can. If they want to ramp up, they can do that real fast. Ina 2 front war, I guarantee you this, they will fight both from the Eastern and western front. They will literally operate from Pakistani air space. We will need highly capable fighters to take them on. Not just numbers. I’m not saying that your idea of buying more tejas is wrong. All I’m saying is it’s not adequate.

We are setting the iAf up for failure if we don’t acknowledge these real threats. They can take down awacs aircraft at standoff ranges. A lot of stand-off weaponry that the paf has never seen will be used. Presence of a fighter with excellent ew systems and countermeasures will save our asses.

Regarding the money...I’m sure we can handle it. 15 billion dollars to save the iaf’s ass...we can come up with it. Take out a loan, confiscate, whatever....do what you have to do to get that money

 

[aditya10r]

But you realize soon that facing China is going to be a whole different beast. They can build airbases and infra far faster than we can. If they want to ramp up, they can do that real fast. Ina 2 front war, I guarantee you this, they will fight both from the Eastern and western front. They will literally operate from Pakistani air space. We will need highly capable fighters to take them on. Not just numbers. I’m not saying that your idea of buying more tejas is wrong. All I’m saying is it’s not adequate.

Even i know Tejas itself isnt adequate but it will get the job done barely with other resources and assets.A lot more needs to be done on all fronts.
Long range standoff weapons need to be integrated,Towed EW has to be validated.Tactics and training protocols need to be devised and what not.

Regarding the money...I’m sure we can handle it. 15 billion dollars to save the iaf’s ass...we can come up with it. Take out a loan, confiscate, whatever....do what you have to do to get that money

Dude this gormint has happily slashed budgets left right and center for its stupid socialist dealings and freebie politics.If it had allocated just 2.5-3% of GDP for defence budget(which it sure as fuck can because our annual expenditure is 27%) and rationalised the civilian pension and implemented proper NPS in the armed forces and cut down the size of the army.That would have provided the armed forces adequate headroom to expand.our present day capital expenditure is 1.1 lakh crore.At 3% the defence budget and with reforms the capital expenditure would have risen to atleast 2.4 lakh crore.More than 2x.But our present day economic and financial realities arent going to change anytime soon.

We have been seeing this MMRCA nautanki for 20 years now and we got only 36 jets instead of 126 demanded and god knows what the actual number of required jets is in the present threat matrix.
Bottomline is we have to prioritize now,what is needed immediately and what can be purchased later on and can we actually pay for them.We have tonnes of backlog payment overdue and if it continues no vendor will not even bother entertaining our orders.We should be content with what we have and build upon it.

 

[bose]

Honestly, I used to believe in that optimism a while back. Just like you are Doing right now. It’s good.

But you realize soon that facing China is going to be a whole different beast. They can build airbases and infra far faster than we can. If they want to ramp up, they can do that real fast. Ina 2 front war, I guarantee you this, they will fight both from the Eastern and western front. They will literally operate from Pakistani air space. We will need highly capable fighters to take them on. Not just numbers. I’m not saying that your idea of buying more tejas is wrong. All I’m saying is it’s not adequate.

We are setting the iAf up for failure if we don’t acknowledge these real threats. They can take down awacs aircraft at standoff ranges. A lot of stand-off weaponry that the paf has never seen will be used. Presence of a fighter with excellent ew systems and countermeasures will save our asses.

Regarding the money...I’m sure we can handle it. 15 billion dollars to save the iaf’s ass...we can come up with it. Take out a loan, confiscate, whatever....do what you have to do to get that money

Brilliant Analysis !!

Side Note: Yes, we do not have money but money can not be the factor when nation security is at stake ... We will give whatever we have for the nations security ...

 

[bose]

Even i know Tejas itself isnt adequate but it will get the job done barely with other resources and assets.A lot more needs to be done on all fronts.
Long range standoff weapons need to be integrated,Towed EW has to be validated.Tactics and training protocols need to be devised and what not.

Dude this gormint has happily slashed budgets left right and center for its stupid socialist dealings and freebie politics.If it had allocated just 2.5-3% of GDP for defence budget(which it sure as fuck can because our annual expenditure is 27%) and rationalised the civilian pension and implemented proper NPS in the armed forces and cut down the size of the army.That would have provided the armed forces adequate headroom to expand.our present day capital expenditure is 1.1 lakh crore.At 3% the defence budget and with reforms the capital expenditure would have risen to atleast 2.4 lakh crore.More than 2x.But our present day economic and financial realities arent going to change anytime soon.

We have been seeing this MMRCA nautanki for 20 years now and we got only 36 jets instead of 126 demanded and god knows what the actual number of required jets is in the present threat matrix.
Bottomline is we have to prioritize now,what is needed immediately and what can be purchased later on and can we actually pay for them.We have tonnes of backlog payment overdue and if it continues no vendor will not even bother entertaining our orders.We should be content with what we have and build upon it.

Brother, The present government have to understand where IAF presently stands and the situation brewing up post COVIT-19 in next couple of years ...

India can not afford budget cuts in defense else the consequence will be very severe ... We want fighter jets that will scare China hell out them ... Rafale F4 & F-35 can do that in limited numbers say 2 squadrons will keep them away ...

 

[aditya10r]

Brother, The present government have to understand where IAF presently stands today and the situation brewing up post COVIT-19 in next couple of years ...

They have already cut the budget by a huge margin and dont make payments on time then why do you think with Corona pandemic they wont cut the budget further more.I wouldnt be shocked to see 0 rupee for capital expenditure.

India can not afford budget cuts in defense else the consequence will be very severe ... We want fighter jets that will scare China hell out them ... Rafale F4 & F-35 can do that in limited numbers say 2 squadrons will keep them away ...

Budget cuts will happen and military will be the first casualty.Cuckendra modi ji has to spend 90000 crore on direct salary 6000 rupees per year to farmers lakhs of crore rupees of farm loan waiver and what not.That leaves no room for Military purchases.

 

[bose]

They have already cut the budget by a huge margin and dont make payments on time then why do you think with Corona pandemic they wont cut the budget further more.I wouldnt be shocked to see 0 rupee for capital expenditure.

Budget cuts will happen and military will be the first casualty.Cuckendra modi ji has to spend 90000 crore on direct salary 6000 rupees per year to farmers lakhs of crore rupees of farm loan waiver and what not.That leaves no room for Military purchases.

Very unfortunate !! we have not learned from our history ...

 

[Bajirao]

Relax bro...relax.......our defence preparedness is not so bad as many bro in this thread thinking..in last couple of years we have improved our basics like ammunation storage,border infrastructure etc. significantly.we can deal with any small misadventure from both side and they are not going to do any big adventure,for sure....as for mmrca even if govt. acclerate the program it's delivery not going to be start of delivery before 2027-28,which is quite similar to mwf expected delivery date..so,instead of buying foreign fighter we can doubled up mwf production..same result with less money and boost to domestic economy ,autonomy,pride.in today's risky hostile environment we will get boost from deal we signed 5 years earlier for 36 rafale not from the deal we will sign 4 year later..for long term planning we should always count on indegenous weapon,foreign weapon is for short term need when we didn't have capability..

 

[Assassin 2.0]

Honestly, I used to believe in that optimism a while back. Just like you are Doing right now. It’s good.

But you realize soon that facing China is going to be a whole different beast. They can build airbases and infra far faster than we can. If they want to ramp up, they can do that real fast. Ina 2 front war, I guarantee you this, they will fight both from the Eastern and western front. They will literally operate from Pakistani air space. We will need highly capable fighters to take them on. Not just numbers. I’m not saying that your idea of buying more tejas is wrong. All I’m saying is it’s not adequate.

We are setting the iAf up for failure if we don’t acknowledge these real threats. They can take down awacs aircraft at standoff ranges. A lot of stand-off weaponry that the paf has never seen will be used. Presence of a fighter with excellent ew systems and countermeasures will save our asses.

Regarding the money...I’m sure we can handle it. 15 billion dollars to save the iaf’s ass...we can come up with it. Take out a loan, confiscate, whatever....do what you have to do to get that money

We cannot match Chinese in defence spending not in speed of building infrastructure.
So what we should do then? Push all of our resources on the edge and punch above our weight to import stuff this lust for arms will cost country dearly we are already spending more 20% of our national budget on defence equipment i think it's not the time to burden ourselves more with loans and ultra expensive imports of foreign defence equipments.
Arms race against much powerful enemy is always going to cost weaker more.

What india should do?
Well diplomatically saying it would be a big failure of indian diplomacy if we ever face a 2 front war scenario. Heck Chinese didn't did anything in 1971 war in 1999 war.
Today i believe we should find cheaper deterrent to counter Chinese threat maybe big number of conventional missiles which can target mainland China or more SSBN.
as long as we have a successful deterrent i don't think Chinese will take military action with Pakistan.

 

[Knowitall]

We cannot match Chinese in defence spending not in speed of building infrastructure.
So what we should do then? Push all of our resources on the edge and punch above our weight to import stuff this lust for arms will cost country dearly we are already spending more 20% of our national budget on defence equipment i think it's not the time to burden ourselves more with loans and ultra expensive imports of foreign defence equipments.
Arms race against much powerful enemy is always going to cost weaker more.

What india should do?
Well diplomatically saying it would be a big failure of indian diplomacy if we ever face a 2 front war scenario. Heck Chinese didn't did anything in 1971 war in 1999 war.
Today i believe we should find cheaper deterrent to counter Chinese threat maybe big number of conventional missiles which can target mainland China or more SSBN.
as long as we have a successful deterrent i don't think Chinese will take military action with Pakistan.

Exactly people here saying tejas won't do the job must understand that tejas will fit it's job very well that is:-

Flying defensive caps
Replacing the old mig-21
Providing a solid groundwork for our aerospace industry and help us in future projects.

India's posture towards china will remain defensive in the coming decade while our military will have sufficient advantage over pakistan throughout the decade.

So tejas is more than enough for our current needs after that we can concentrate on AMCA and other future platforms.