F-35? We Want The LCA Navy: Indian Navy Chief

[Jason bourne]

Asked today about the Indian Navy's interest in the F-35 Lightning II, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral D.K. Joshi today said that while the acquisition of a new generation fighter from abroad with "in the planning phase", the Navy was looking forward more to the LCA Navy. Lockheed-Martin has pitched both F-35B and C variants to the Indian Navy, and is understood to have made another presentation recently.

The LCA Navy Mk.1 is another story altogether, delayed by an EADS-assisted redesign of the platform's landing gear to make it capable of arrested landings on a carrier deck.

 

[Cherokee]

Navy has the most Successful Weapon Indigenous Development track Record . This is an example why . They won't Kick Local Products for fancy weapons . They will keep on Reiterating Development to bring it on Par . Other Branches of Defense should learn from it .

 

[arp2041]

Hats off to the navy chief & Indian Navy as a whole. On the one hand IAF is on a spree of procuring foreign ac in the likes of Rafale. su-30mki etc.(though i am not at all against it ) & sidelining our very own Tejas, Navy Chief is doing just the opposite This makes complete sense as sophisticated plane like the F-35s will come with lots of restrictions, NLCA on the other hand will be nearly indigenous with no permission needed from Uncle Sam on how to use them.

BTW that NLCA in the pic doesn't have arrestor hook??

 

[Abingdonboy]

Hats off to the navy chief & Indian Navy as a whole. On the one hand IAF is on a spree of procuring foreign ac in the likes of Rafale. su-30mki etc.(though i am not at all against it ) & sidelining our very own Tejas, Navy Chief is doing just the opposite This makes complete sense as sophisticated plane like the F-35s will come with lots of restrictions, NLCA on the other hand will be nearly indigenous with no permission needed from Uncle Sam on how to use them.

BTW that NLCA in the pic doesn't have arrestor hook??

Notice how he didn't say the IN weren't interested in the F-35 or had no plans to procure the F-35 in the future. The Cheif has done some smart PR there but the fact remains the IAC 2 and follow on ACCs will be CATOBAR configured for which the N-LCA cannot be operated from not to mention the IN needs to be looking at 5th gen fighters for the IAC 2 and beyond. The Cheif has produced a nice sound-bite but nothig has changed, the IN are still highly likely to go for the F-35 within the next 7-8 years.

 

[li0nheart]

BTW that NLCA in the pic doesn't have arrestor hook??

yes that's true, the present NLCA is not meant to land on a STOBAR runway. For it's a TD, not LSP, though included as LSP

 

[arp2041]

Notice how he didn't say the IN weren't interested in the F-35 or had no plans to procure the F-35 in the future. The Cheif has done some smart PR there but the fact remains the IAC 2 and follow on ACCs will be CATOBAR configured for which the N-LCA cannot be operated from not to mention the IN needs to be looking at 5th gen fighters for the IAC 2 and beyond. The Cheif has produced a nice sound-bite but nothig has changed, the IN are still highly likely to go for the F-35 within the next 7-8 years.

Our Tejas debate started with AF's version carried onto Naval version??

I have no prob. if IN go for N-AMCA or N-FGFA or maybe Rafale-M, but the US high end tech. come with too much strings attached to it, classic case being INS Jalashwa given to India on condition that it would not be used in a war, now if we can't use such an important ship in war, than why the F*** we have bought it in the first place??? In front of US conditions, even a 4th gen indigenous NLCA with limited capabilities look way better than 5th gen F-35s.

 

[Gessler]

Notice how he didn't say the IN weren't interested in the F-35 or had no plans to procure the F-35 in the future. The Cheif has done some smart PR there but the fact remains the IAC 2 and follow on ACCs will be CATOBAR configured for which the N-LCA cannot be operated from not to mention the IN needs to be looking at 5th gen fighters for the IAC 2 and beyond. The Cheif has produced a nice sound-bite but nothig has changed, the IN are still highly likely to go for the F-35 within the next 7-8 years.

By next 7-8 years, N-FGFA may well come into light for IAC 2.
In any given CATOBAR carrier ops situation, FGFA will triumph over F-35 JSF. The only role of
F-35B I see in IN would be for ops from vessels like Mistral/Juan Carlos, but Im not sure if LPH/LHD-based
jets can find any place in IN's doctrine or not.

 

[sancho]

Navy has the most Successful Weapon Indigenous Development track Record . This is an example why . They won't Kick Local Products for fancy weapons . They will keep on Reiterating Development to bring it on Par . Other Branches of Defense should learn from it .

Is it? Then why naval Dhruv was rejected by IN and no changes to fix some issues were accepted? Why don't they support HAL at least to develop a bigger helicopter with ASW capability? In fact, they won't induct a single indigenous helicopter in this decade, not Dhruv, not the coming LUH and with the selection of S70/NH90 helicopters, there is not even a need for a medium class helicopter anymore. Add Mig 29Ks, possibly another foreign MMRCA, foreign MPAs...and suddenly, N-LCA is the only indigenous aircraft in INs airwing, until Saras might be available.
Even conventional subs developed in India will come only by the next decade, just like our indigenous carriers, so there the reality is quiet different.

The fact is, IN has more indigenous options on the vessel side, because the Indian ship yards are far ahead of the aero industry.

yes that's true, the present NLCA is not meant to land on a STOBAR runway. For it's a TD, not LSP, though included as LSP

If that would be true, we wouldn't needed a strengthened gear as well, but that is not the case right? We will have shore based training facilities to train arrested landings and sooner or later the hook needs to be added on this version as well.

 

[IndoUS]

@sancho why is that our naval ship yard ahead in development and manufacturing while the aeroindustry is struggling. Is it due to management or because the area is less complex?

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Better to put more effort into your indigenous platforms.

But if the price of the F-35 falls then it might be a decent idea to get some as well.

 

[SpArK]

AC fighters only comes in smaller numbers.

I would like the best available (meaning Lightening ) for our ACs.

It has to be the best , simply the best and best among all.

 

[sancho]

@sancho why is that our naval ship yard ahead in development and manufacturing while the aeroindustry is struggling. Is it due to management or because the area is less complex?

Could have many reasons, but maybe it's also a problem that we simply have too less options in the aero field. Apart from HAL we just have NAL and they are too small as of now, TATA and Mahindra are developing capabilities now and bad management between the government industries and the forces surely is a problem too.

 

[sancho]

AC fighters only comes in smaller numbers.

I would like the best available (meaning Lightening ) for our ACs.

It has to be the best , simply the best and best among all.

My choice currently is this one:

DCNS offer for Brazil, of a 60000t CATOBAR carrier.

 

[acid rain]

The IN would surely need a 5th gen option besides the rafale M and NLLCA, NFGFA or NAMCA is not even a concept yet, so we have limited options for a 5th gen ac.

 

[$@rJen]

Why don't we go for F-35 atleast for may be 8 to 10 of them, may be for IAC-1 i think keeping just LCAs in that AC isn't worth since they're light weight, we need to station some F-35 to give an blow to the enemy fighters and ships in IOR....well it's my personal Msg, correct me if i'm wrong