MirageBlue
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There is a very good reason why I'm saying this. The tejas was originally supposed to be a 200 to 300 initial order, but after 40 years even India's air force doesn't want it, and is being forced to buy roughly over 100. Not to mention its still not fully developed.
The AMCA is still just a concept on paper, and India is already announcing plans to buy a large amount of a plane that no one even knows when an actual prototype will actually fly.
No one is forcing the IAF.
What has changed is the political dispensation's attitude towards indigenous programs. Self-reliance is the new mantra and there is heavy emphasis on it since the NDA govt came to power. And the IAF brass simply have realised that there is no alternative, affordable option and the Govt. is not going to spend $10-12 billion on a foreign import for a MiG-21 Bison replacement, when they can't even get the MRCA to be contracted.
As it stands, the Tejas Mk1 and Mk1A offer the IAF pretty much everything it has asked for from a light fighter and more. In fact, the Mk1A will be the most technologically modern fighter in the IAF inventory after the Rafale, even more so than the Mirage-2000I which still uses a pulse doppler RDY-3 radar.
And with Tejas Mk2 to come after this to replace Mirage-2000, MiG-29s and Jaguars, the Tejas family will more than meet the original goal.
By the way, do you believe that the PAF would have gone in for the JF-17 if a Gripen were available with full ToT and license manufacture in Pakistan? Don't kid yourself for a minute that they would have done so.
Pakistan had enormous budgetary and political embargo related difficulties which meant that whatever was on offer from China was acceptable. They had no other option, so they made the best of it.