F-35 may be a hit at AERO India 2023; competition for MRCA will be between Rafale and Su57
Most of the Western countries consider the F-35 fighter jet at the forefront of fighter technology. It is equipped with the most advanced, lethal and interoperable weapons systems which United States has produced.
The F-35 have been designed to hopefully penetrate and defeat the most advanced adversary air defences. Such advanced defence systems are available only with Russia, China, France, Japan, Israel and now even India.
Just a few years back USA would have refused to even give a flying demonstrations of this Aircraft to the IAF, not that IAF boys have been “ dazzled “ by such a gleaming fighter. Till now USA thinks that their obsolete F21 is the most sophisticated fighter which the IAF can handle. However suddenly things have changed after the Ukraine Conflict between the West and Russia. So now a senior US embassy official has taken pains to indicate the importance of the F-35’s arrival at the Air Show as a symbol of the strong and close partnership between India and the United States.
The USA knows that DRDO has not only completed the design of AMCA but has also carryied out the Critical Design Review to ensure that all 16 primary systems of the aircraft can be fabricated and tested to meet performance requirements. These primary systems include hydraulics, cockpit avionics, Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM), electricals, the weapons systems, and the internal weapons bay. The AMCA will be a twin-engine, stealth supersonic multi-role fifth generation fighter but will integrate emerging, best of breed sixth generation technologies over time.
The prototype of AMCA may be expected by 2025 and its first flightby 2026. So the appearance of the US Air Force’s multirole F-35A Lightning-II and F-35A at the Bangalore air show has just caused lots of curiosity further the IAF and HAL.
It is not going to takeaway the Indian minds from pursuing the indigenous AMCA with full force. Of course we will be taking help from our American friends in the form of the jet engine at least may be for the first two Squadrons.
The F-35A Lightning-II, was made available for public viewing on static display at Yehalanka.
Many experts on the Indian Air Force believe that the arrival of the F-35s at Yelahanka was a signal that the US is positioning an American fighter to participate in the oncoming IAF tender for 114 multirole fighter aircraft (MRCA).
The USA it seems has finally realized that it cannot fool the IAF by its F-21 a technologically outdated and obsolete fighter that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has flown for decades.
However what they are unaware that even with an with a very powerful engine producing 43,000 pounds of thrust, the F-35 in service with the and the US Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy and additionally, eight international program partners, including the Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia, Norway, Denmark and Canada, as well as six Foreign Military Sales customers, including Israel, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Belgium, and Singapore, stands no chance for the IAF MRCA competition.
Both the Rafale and the Russian SU57 have much more advantage over the F35 on numerous other parameters including Chinese-origin parts in some components of the aircraft. Once the MRCA competition unfolds then Lockheed Martin will be in for a rude shock.
