The jet that costs a bomb, why F-35 can't be India's dogfight duke
Instead of splurging tens of thousands of crores of rupees on an unproven foreign fighter, India would be better off investing that amount in its indigenous stealth fighter programme - the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft.
- Jun 12, 2019,
- Updated Jun 12, 2019 9:51 AM IST
For an aircraft that is facing numerous technical challenges despite years of development and operational capability, the F-35 has become something of a sensation in India. Even vague rumours that the US has offered its latest stealth fighter to India are enough to set off fireworks in the media.
It happened first on July 22, 2007, and again in January 2018, with the Press Trust of India being the culprit on both occasions. In between these two instances of media-driven hype, there was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's famous US 2014 visit during which several Indian journalists were speculating that India was likely to sign an F-35 deal.
Now comes a media report that the US has offered India the F-35 in order to steer New Delhi away from the Russian built S-400 air defence system. Since threats don't work against India anymore, the Donald Trump administration seems to have offered a big sop to get India to walk out of the Rs 40,000 crore deal to buy five S-400 systems.
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For an aircraft that is facing numerous technical challenges despite years of development and operational capability, the F-35 has become something of a sensation in India. Even vague rumours that the US has offered its latest stealth fighter to India are enough to set off fireworks in the media.
It happened first on July 22, 2007, and again in January 2018, with the Press Trust of India being the culprit on both occasions. In between these two instances of media-driven hype, there was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's famous US 2014 visit during which several Indian journalists were speculating that India was likely to sign an F-35 deal.
Now comes a media report that the US has offered India the F-35 in order to steer New Delhi away from the Russian built S-400 air defence system. Since threats don't work against India anymore, the Donald Trump administration seems to have offered a big sop to get India to walk out of the Rs 40,000 crore deal to buy five S-400 systems.
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