U.S. May Allow India to Join JSF Effort

[MST]

stay away from US,cant trust those guys...

They sent a nuclear aircraft carrier to help Pakistan in 1971.....

There should be no American fighter jets in IAF or IN...

Dude, its 39 years since 1971. World has changed a lot. There was also a time not so long ago when the British had colonized us.

We should look at the opportunity today and make the most of it.

 

[FNFAL]

It is apparent that usa could welcome another party to f35 project with financial interest.
Nonetheless the india would stand to gain a lot from exposure to the most cutting edge aircraft development initiative.

 

[sancho]

The developement seems expected.
I cant comment completely on the financial aspects of it..
apart from the fact that some of the JSF's initial inverstors have decided to hold back on the program..and it is facing more and more opposition, especially the B version. So ..bring in an ambitious giant into the picture..and voila..there is the cash.

The political aspect of it(wholly secondary in my view).. would be to check the Chinese ...The PAK-FA.. is happeneing.. whether the Americans like it or not.
it is independant of the any other acquizition in my view.

Exactly that is the point here!

It's not about India at all, it's just about the trouble the US and it's partners face with twice the unit costs and 1.5 times the operational costs as planed, several problems in the development and even further delays of the IOC. Combine that with the weak economies of the partner countries and the budget cuts and you have BIG problems for the whole F35 program.
- UK cancelled the B and switched to C, which makes the B verion even costlier
- Italy thinks about postponing their B order because of the problems and increased costs and because their carriers can't use other fighters, which leaves only the USMC as a real customer
- Canada and the Netherlands considers to cancel their orders completely and according recent reports Turkey is thinking the same way (although I have some doubts about that)
- even the US is cutting their defense budgets and the USMC version is just in a probational period for 2 years, to see how the development turns out and if the costs still makes it worth it. In the meantime it's still possible that it will be cancelled as well

Under these circumstances it's not surprising that the US "invites", or better desperately hopes that countries like India, or Japan jumps in and help them out, especially now that a new threat had arrived:

Japan should buy F-35 stealth fighters, US says

Japan should buy a fleet of F-35 stealth jet fighters to boost its airforce, the US defence secretary has said, one day after China unveiled its own stealth fighter...

Japan should buy F-35 stealth fighters, US says - Telegraph

 

[IND151]

indian navy needs f 35s but IAF doesn't as they will get FGFA. we need only 30 to 40 f 35s.

 

[kali]

Strategic Forces Command want at least 40 aircraft.Is f35 suitable for it ??

 

[Archie]

Strategic Forces Command want at least 40 aircraft.Is f35 suitable for it ??

Dude,
Americans donot allow fighters which they supply to be used for Nuclear Delivery accept maybe in the case of ISRAEL , this also a caveat in US proposals for mmrca
Americans never allow there weapons systems to be used in offensive operations they are only meant for self defence
Whenever India signs an FMS deal with US what do u think Pentagon tells the US Congress
It states that it will enhance the national security of an important ally
it doesnot state that it will enhance offensive capability

While US has allowed F/A18 or F16 if they are chosen for mmrca to be used for offensive operations , buts thats coz they know that these fighters will be deployed against china and would be used only for enhancing defences around Arunachal

While Rafale and Eurofighter have actually publicised there capability to deliver nuclear weapons with france even offering Storm Shadow cruise missile as part of weapons package , Americans are against the very thought of there fighter being used for nuclear delivery

Even pakistan cannot legally use its F16 for nuclear delivery though it has modified some of them for that purpose

So i dont think SFC will get F35 , it might get 2sqds of Rafale if it is chosen for MMRCA or even 50 odd FGFA to replace Mirage 2000 in nuclear delivery role

 

[GORKHALI]

India not keen on US jet ,Will work on own 5-Gen fighter project with Russia,
MILITARY AVIATION AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY NEWS: India not keen on US jet ,Will work on own 5-Gen fighter project with Russia,
SOURCE : TNN
India has no plans as of now to either join the US-led joint strike fighter (JSF) programme or buy the F-35 `Lightning-II’ fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) when it finally becomes operational. “We cannot have two types of FGFA. We have already launched preliminary work for our FGFA after inking the $295 million preliminary design contract (PDC) with Russia last month,” said a top defence ministry official on Friday.
This comes in the wake of comments made by a top Pentagon official, undersecretary of defence for acquisition, technology and logistics Ashton Carter, in Washington that the US was open to Indian participation in its JSF project.
Interestingly, the comments came during a function where an aggressive sales pitch was made for India to select either the American F/A-18 `Super Hornet’ ( Boeing) or F-16 `Falcon’ ( Lockheed Martin) over their European rivals in the ongoing IAF‘s medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) contest.
The other 4.5-generation fighters in the hotly-contested race to bag the $10.4 billion MMRCA project, under which 18 jets will be bought off-the-shelf and another 108 will be manufactured in India under transfer of technology, are Eurofighter Typhoon, Swedish Gripen (Saab), French Rafale (Dassault) and Russian MiG-35 (United Aircraft Corporation).
The IAF force matrix for the coming years revolves around the 270 Sukhoi-30MKIs contracted from Russia for around $12 billion, the 126 MMRCA and 120 indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, apart from upgraded MiG-29s and Mirage-2000s.
In the decades ahead, the advanced stealth FGFA to be developed with Russia will be the mainstay of India’s combat fleet. “Our FGFA will be cheaper than the F-35. Moreover, the intellectual property rights of the FGFA will equally and jointly vest on both India and Russia, with full access to the source code and the like,” said another senior official.
With a potent mix of super-manoeuvrability and supersonic cruising ability, the “swing-role” FGFA will of course not come cheap. The cost of designing, infrastructure build-up, prototype development and flight testing has been pegged at around $11 billion, with India and Russia chipping in with $5.5 billion each.
Over and above this, each of the 250-300 FGFA India hopes to begin inducting from 2020 onwards will cost around $100 million each. In all, India will spend upwards of $35 billion over the next two decades in its biggest-ever defence project till now.
The Indian FGFA will primarily be based on the single-seater Sukhoi T-50, the prototype of which is already flying in Russia, but will include a twin-seater version and a more powerful engine with greater thrust.
“Its complete design will be frozen by the end of the 18-month PDC. Six to seven of its prototypes should be flying by 2017. After that, there will be 2,500 hours of flight-testing over 25 months before the series production begins in 2019,” he said.