Does ajai shukla represent a certain interest group, well difficult to say but then he certainly has a past where till the time he was working for NDTV he was the most anti-indigenous chap also back then almost everyone was and if I am not mistaken so was shiv aroor, but then something happened post 2007 (there abouts), ajai shukla left that job and when he resurfaced he became the most pro-indigenous chap around and so did a handful others and post that it was promote drdo, hal etc.
I really doubt people can be labeled as some country's agent and so on and so forth. In this industry people are offered lucrative contracts by individual companies and then these become exclusive in that particular domain or for their entire product range but they remain free to take up more such contracts with non-competing companies. Eg if someone is offered a contract to do write-ups on engines by an x company from America the very same person can have a contract from an Indian company for some other product, so on and so forth.
Anyways I concur with what ajai shukla says but only if the decision is to go for an American jet. As far as I understand, MMRCA will most definitely be a political decision and if it is so it is highly unlikely that we will go with any other aircraft other than the American jets in the fray. If this is what is
scripted I dare say we knock off this contest and go for the f35s.
- We get a 5G aircraft in bargain, which I believe is any day better than any of the contesting aircrafts in MMRCA.
- India will spend near 20b usd or more on MMRCA so why not put in a little extra and better utilize it and on something which is going to be there till the time 6th gen aircrafts come into horizon and something that will get life time upgrades unlike the other 2 American jets which are in fray for now.
- Economics of this deal was my biggest apprehension which made me disapprove this fighter jet in the first place, not anymore. If IsAF can get the jets for around 130m usd a piece then I am sure we can lay our hands on it as well at a similar price tag, let us not forget EFT is nearly as expensive which I believe should be good enough for us. Further I don't think with that kind of money/jet is going to be that expensive a proposition for us. The induction of this jet should start around 2020 by when Indian economy if not more will definitely be over and above 4t usd (it already is 1.4t usd and as per a recent report by IMF IIRC in 2015 this figure is expected to double so if we were to sustain similar real growth it could quadruple by 2020 amd if not that then most definitely triple) which means an annual defence budget of no less than 90b usd and a union budget of no less than 700b usd (taking a pretty pessimistic outlook).
- About AMCA, yes the two are in the same weight category but india has pretty much made up its mind on developing AMCA so I think we will develop AMCA irrespective of our decision on our purchase of another 5G aircraft. Gripen being in fray in this contest or the initial liking of IAF for Mirage200 did not mean india put a full stop on further development of LCA, also I don't think the IAF would like the know-how gained in making of LCA and PAKFA/FGFA and possible ToT on F35 to fizzle out without that being put to constructive use. I think LCA experience has made the IAF a little confident about the ADA on delivering stuff to their requirement. But with AMCA there also remains the possibility of delays, what if this aircraft takes 20years in making? Are we looking at 2030-35 then? We cant be sure of by when this product will be delivered, let us not forget it has taken a lot of time for the Americans to deliver on f35 even after having experience in making of fighter aircrafts for a pretty long time.
- We have our apprehensions about these jets being American and so prone to sanctions and for this we take Pakistan as an example. We need to focus on the question, can Pakistan and india even be compared and equated? India is expected to be world's 3rd largest economy in times to come and Pakistan is a country which is no less a nuisance value to this world also don't forget in American government's decisions the corporate have the most say, indo-US nuke deal is one such example, add to that the china factor, so I really doubt we will be prone to sanctions. Let us say I am being too optimistic, question to be raised is what could the GoI do in kargil, or post the parliament attack or post 26/11 and even without a single American equipment purchase, we could not cross the LoC during kargil and the governments of the day were more or less were dumb founded on the other 2 occassions, Americans were involved in all 3 instances pretty heavily and whatever was done on our behalf was routed through the Americans and so if we are suggesting that at present the Americans do not have a good enough say in handling of our crises vis-a-vis the sub-continent I think we are being in a denial.
For the time being put all the stress on Su30MKIs and LCA and get the work started on AMCA.
That said, with news like
"Obama mission: Billions to Pakistan, billions from India" certainly do not argue well for any such thing to materialize, and all this happening after a pretty stern message from india that the US should not transfer lethal weapons to Pakistan just goes on to show the US has no regards for india's sensitivities and a reflection of the US's arrogance.
All this just makes me wonder how much are our politicians intoxicated in their love for the US, without a doubt there is a very strong lobby of the Americans within the GoI and just in case they have this love oozing out in no proportions then hopefully they make a sensible decision of going for f35s than the two teens!
