India is reportedly thinking of a limited government-to-government agreement to buy a few F-35 fighter aircraft, possibly on the lines of Rafale, a report states. This is just a day after US President Donald Trump announced the sale of F-35 warplanes to India. The Indian side, however, downplayed the announcement.
The Economic Times reports that the Modi government could buy a few F-35s as a stopgap arrangement to meet the shortage of fighter aircraft in the Indian Air Force (IAF). This would be similar to the 2016 agreement with France for 36 Rafale jets.
The IAF today is operating under a severe dearth, where just 31 of the approved 43 sanctioned squadrons are functional, while the effective number is merely 29 squadrons because of MiG-21 aircraft safety concerns.
Details of the F-35 Deal
India would not be going in for F-35 making it a workhorse of IAF or bulk buying it. It would use it as an interim measure until the aircraft deficiency is overcome in the near future. The deal would not cannibalize the indigenous fighter programme, the AMCA, and India would keep working on AMCA, the timeline for which is not predicted before 2036, even though there can be delays to that.
The report further states that the US could put conditions on the F-35s to ensure foreign operators, particularly Russians, don’t get to operate the jets. The US is also against merging the F-35 with Russia’s S-400 missile defense system.
At present, India has not confirmed whether it is pursuing the F-35 deal. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stated that the acquisition process has not yet started, and talks are currently in the proposal stage. “There is a process by which platforms are acquired. You are well aware of that process. There is in most cases a request for proposals that is floated. There are responses to those. They are evaluated. I don’t think with regard to the acquisition of an advanced aviation platform by India, that process has started as yet. So this is currently something that’s at the stage of proposal, but I don’t think the formal process in this regard has started as yet,” Misri clarified.
