Backup? plans? and HAL?
Hal do have a packup plan if engines are not delivered they would pack up and go on vacation
There are a couples of plans:-
Both of these solutions are a long term one (atleast 10 years), for the short term we will be reliant on the GE F404.
Why 10 years plus? The dry version of Kaveri works, doesn't it? If that is the case, it is almost inconceivable that it would take 10 years to make a version with afterburner. Of course, if India won't invest more than 10 rupees a year on its development, an afterburning Kaveri could take quite some time to come into being.
It's not called smartness, it's called IP theft. Publicly listed companies in India won't engage in such behaviour. There's a reason why Chinese are known as IP thieves and no company will want to engage with them had it not been for their huge market.
Kaveri ? I don't really know what is its status, but it seems the after burner problems are not fixed, and no industrialization is on track. That means some more delay.
On this specific subject, it was called few years ago that part of the Rafale deal offsets from SAFRAN was to evaluate how to certify Kaveri (and fix the SB problems). The offsets amount was not enought to end the job, and SAFRAN made a financial proposal. Since no news....
Korean fighter is a LIFT- Lead iin fighter trainer. Tejas is full-fledged fighter jet.
Is there a significant combat capability difference between the two as I read that the weapon load of FA50 from wiki is about 3.25 tons while that of Tejas reported in DFI was 4 tons?
To start off with, FA50 still does not have BVR capability, while Tejas mk1 can fire 2 BVR missiles as of 2024(I Derby ER and Astra).
