All this noise about the J31........
How many times have we heard this bullshit before? Oh the Pakistanis are being armed with Western and Chinese equipment and India is under-prepared. All of you folks who are running around with their tails tucked between your legs fearing some stealth jet might lock onto it, how much of India's capabilities which were showcased in Op Sindoor were you aware of? You need to read more about Chinese military platforms, their testing and their pricing strategies to understand what a f***ing sham Chinese def equipment is. EVEN IF the Chinese jets are worth their weight in salt, Pakistan won't be getting any, atleast for the next 4-5 years. And btw, a 5th gen fighter is like a Bugatti Veyron. A million dollars to buy and then 150k for a freaking oil change. Even if Pakistan get the Bugatti for free, neither do they have the fuel to keep refilling every 12 mins, nor do they have the 150k for the oil change. This is all geopolitical fear mongering. The only reason China is making a big show of offering the J31 to Pakis is because Trump stirred up a media storm by claiming that India is gonna get the F35 and Pakistan needed an equivalent narrative. Simple as that. Time will prove this.
All this noise about F35 or Su57.......
How many times has the US stabbed India in the back? EVEN NOW in the present moment Trump is trying to backstab Modi. You think the Americans will allow us to fly the F35s in the event that Op Sindoor 2.0 needs to be carried out? Do you think they'll allow India to integrate the F35s in the IACCS or NC3I with all the other Russian equipment? Do you think they'll allow India to do future India specific upgrades like we did to the Sukhois and MiGs. A big fat NO. F35 in IAF inventory is as good as a paper plane on your office desk that you can do aerial patrolling in. Sure, it adds to deterrence but what about when this deterrence is tested?
Now let's look at Big Red. Is Russia a WAY more reliable partner than USA? ABSOLUTELY. But the Su57 is essentially not in the same class as the F35 or J31. It's a much larger jet, akin to the J20 or F22. But it nowhere is as stealthy as the F22. The Su 57's RCS for eg is between 0.1 - 0.5 square meters depending on distance of detection. The Rafale's RCS ranges between 0.1-1 square meters. Sure as a stop gap, a few Su57's might do the trick for the next 4-5 years but beyond that, we'd be fools to think the Su57 is potent enough a platform and from everything that has happened in the last month and a half, Indian military and political leadership is far from fools. They are bloody good at their job, and have atleast surpassed my appreciation of India's military might and political will to yield that might.
IMHO, we NEED to fast track the Kaveri and AMCA programs as much as possible. The Kaveri isn't a complete failure. From my appreciation, the project can be massively fast-tracked if India signs MOUs to develop specific systems that we're unable to perfect for the engine with private companies, separately for all such components. For the AMCA Mk1 which will have considerable foreign tech, we should again look at specific fifth gen tech components that will take the longest to develop indigenously. We should compromise on the degree of indigenousness in the Mk1 and have atleast a couple of squadrons by 2035. If we can do that, then Mk2 can be a fully indigenous 5.5 gen platform. Also, India should consider joining the European 6th Gen program. Join, jointly develop the tech in design phase, and then leave the program before prototyping phase, like France did with the Eurofighter. Till the time the AMCA joins the IAF, India should focus on completely operationalizing the Ghatak UAV and CATS warrior program in the next 3-4 years. That is an asymmetric capability, especially in how the India-Pak conflict is escalating in the air domain.
