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I think you guys don't know how this entire story about ORCA came into existence . If you did you wouldn't bring it up . ORCA was first proposed by IN to the IAF who shot it down as the IAF believes it has the monopoly over things that fly just as the IN retains monopoly over everything that sails - surface or sub surface. This much is known .Wrong, If IAF joins project in next 2 years, ORCA and TEDBF will come out at same time.
I might even say ORCA will come out before TEDBF because it's less complicated project.
However , what's not known or isn't much in the limelight is the fact that IN took to involving the IAF only because at that point in time it wasn't certain MoD / GoI would clear an IN proposal for 45-60 Deck Based Fighter Aircraft as the development cum mfg cost of it would simply be exorbitant & the IN which has been nursing plans to dominate the IOR with its troika of AC , SSNs & LHDs since a decade or thereabouts after independence got desperate.
The plans by themselves were pretty reasonable as that's precisely how the Rafale program commenced - thru joint efforts with the Rafale M coming out before the Rafale C . However this also clashed with the IAF's program of the MMRCA & the IAF having burnt its fingers plenty of times in the past given GoI's last minute flip flops didn't want the latter to get any ideas.
Into this mess jumped HAL which teamed up with IN as it was smarting from Dassault's refusal to guarantee quality of Rafales coming out of HAL making uncharitable remarks about it which effectively jeopardized the MMRCA tender. Hence when the opportunity presented itself later that decade thru TEDBF , HAL saw a golden opportunity to kill any further movement on the follow up to MMRCA tender by backing INs proposal for joint development .
IAF put its foot down & refused to be party to any such venture. That in turn killed the ORCA. Moreover once the IAF withdrew from the PAKFA / FGFA JV with the Russians & whole heartedly committed to the AMCA project whatever slim chances there were of reviving the ORCA proposal came to a swift end .
If you're getting a quasi 5th Gen platform in AMCA Mk-1 why would you opt for a 4.5 + Gen or 4.5 ++ Gen FA ? Might as well increase the off take of Mk-1s you're contracting .