The juxtaposition of the Lockheed Martin F-35A and Sukhoi Su-57 at the recent Aero India show was great for headlines. Countless images emerged of the two jets “squaring off” on the ramp.
Russia is offering New Delhi the Su-57 and industrial participation. This despite India’s withdrawal from the original PAK FA programme in the 2010s on cost and technology concerns. US President Donald Trump, for his part, said the USA “is paving the way to ultimately provide the F-35” to India.
Given the torturous nature of Indian defence procurement, limited funds, and incessant demands for technology transfer and local production, it would be somewhat of an aviation miracle if either jet ends up with an Indian air force roundel.
The Aero India hoopla around the two types is little more than a brief distraction from the massive challenges facing India’s air force.
The country’s Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) requirement for 114 badly-needed jets has been crawling along for years, though supposedly a request for proposals is due in 2025. Boeing, Dassault Aviation, Eurofighter, Lockheed and Saab are all pitching fourth-generation platforms for MRFA.
FlightGlobal well remembers the 2011 Aero India show, where the same rivals pitched basically the same aircraft for basically the same requirement. The Rafale won that 126-aircraft deal – then called Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft – only to see it later cancelled, although India made an “emergency” buy of 36 Rafales in 2015.
The country also has several much-delayed domestic fighter programmes, and urgent requirements in key enabling areas such as air-to-air refuelling, airborne early warning and control, electronic warfare, and unmanned systems.
Unlike the easy days of 2011, when New Delhi could arguably take its time updating airpower capabilities, the geopolitically fraught 2020s adds great urgency to this mammoth task.
Geopolitics is alive and well in our recent coverage. In an unusual helicopter intercept, a Harbin Z-9 of the People’s Liberation Army Navy intercepted a Philippine government turboprop over the South China Sea, coming soon after a Shenyang J-16 fighter’s dangerous intercept of a Boeing P-8A Poseidon of the Royal Australian Air Force.
The Pentagon also had a close look at the Boeing F-15EX – one of the gaggle of fighters on offer to India – and contends that the type is more than a match for emerging fifth-generation threats, such as China’s Chengdu J-20 and Moscow’s Su-57.
We also look at a developmental unmanned air vehicle from PteroDynamics. The US Navy is providing $4.6 million for the company’s Transwing vehicle, which could revolutionise the delivery of spare parts and light equipment for ships at sea.