What attitude? Facts over blind pride? It's a fact than most of our indigenous developments are not as capable as promised, delayed in development and THEREFOR has caused the forces to buy foreign stuff. You and even I don't like it, but that's the simple truth, which can't be denied!
Who said they need to be the best in the world? Astra needs to be "
capable enough" to replace R27 and R77s, so offer a range of around 80Km, not the 100+Km that GORKHALI suggested, or to be as capable as METEOR (which has nothing to do with range, but with the ramjet propulsion), but the FACT is that it falls short in it's current version to be as capable as the older Russian missiles that we have. That's even why DRDO already points to the MK2 version as the base to offer the required performance. I have no problem with waiting for that, even if that causes the import of more foreign missiles as a stopgap (Derby, R27s), but I want to see actual results not only promises from DRDO!
Again the unrealistic notion to be world class.
But lets take that for the moment, what makes them world class? The Italian guns, Israeli AESA radars and air defence missiles, the Russian guns and cruise missiles and partially even the US engines? Lets not fool ourselfs here, our indigenously developed naval vessels benefit A LOT from access to foreign and jointly developed systems, which is exactly the advantage we need to use. Develop vessels or aircrafts according to indigenous requirements, but don't limit yourself to indigenous techs and capabilities only, what happens when you do that is sadly visible in the LCA project.
I don't feel bad at all, but I stick to facts and not just to pride! LCA got IOC1 in 2011, IOC2 in 2013 and will hopefully get FOC by the end of this year, compare the improvements it made in that time, with the improvements the EF made in the same time and you will understand the difference. I will love to see a capable version of LCA to be inducted into IAF and be the base for our aviation industry, but till that day comes, the simple truth is, that we need foreign fighters, weapons and technical imput, which is what the MMRCA offer us.