What objection would the USG have? They were amenable to it in the past – “There is nothing on our side, no principle which bars that on our side, Indian participation in the Joint Strike Fighter.” – Ashton Carter.

And this was in 2011, bilateral relations have progressed quite a bit since then. The Pentagon (particularly the PACOM) will certainly be championing such a deal.

The US Government have repeatedly blocked Lockheed Martin from offering the F-35 to the Indian Air Force, it was never offered in any of the multiple RFI´s that the IAF sent. There´s a reason why LM is offering a ten ton plus Viper in this recent “single engine made in India saga” and not Dave A, the reason being it was blocked from doing so by the State Dpt/Pentagon (choose).

The MiG-29K is not in the running. From the news that’s trickling out, both official and unofficial, the IN is facing some very serious issues with the aircraft.

Thanks, i wasnt aware of that.

The Super Hornet will be hard pressed to compete with the Rafale M given the commonality factor. The only question is whether the elevators on the two carriers can accommodate the Rafale’s non-folding wings.

The F-35 is the only US aircraft that has a viable shot at the contract.

Why?

WRT to the last RFI issued by the IN in 2010 –

Indian Navy Fighter RFI: Lockheed To Respond With Both F-35B & C

Did LM ever answered that particular RFI?

Isn’t AESA Vixen pretty much same as Raven ES-05?

Not quite, Selex Vixen is a family of Radars, one of them was known in the past has Selex Vixen 1000 Raven, today is called Raven ES-05.

The RFI doesn’t mention a twin engine requirement. Quite deliberately. The Gripen M’s prospects are still bleak but the F-35, I suspect, is very much in the running.

Tender Document

I would be nothing short of amazed if Lockheed was given the green light by the US Government to offer “Dave C” into this. This seems a cat fight between the Rafale M, the Mig-29K and the Super Hornet.
One question, can the INS Vikrant deal with something like the SH (or the F-35C) at full load?

Russia, UAE to collaborate on 5th-generation fighter – UPI.com
http://www.upi.com › Defense News
Feb 20, 2017 – The new light combat aircraft to be developed jointly by Russia and the United Arab Emirates is expected to be based on the legacy MiG-29.

Russia, UAE To Develop Light Fighter Based on MiG-29 Jet: IDEX …
https://defence.pk › Pakistan Defence Forum › Country Watch › Arab Defence Forum

Or in another words, the UAE is doing precisely what it did to EADS (remember the MAKO?), Dassault, Eurofighter and a few others. With the UAE untill a contract is signed and the first airframes are being delivered the chances are that the entire discussion will end in zero. This entire episode smells “lets put pressure on the Americans in order to get the F-35A” by some fifty miles.

The real question is “Are there any deep pocket partners left who can help Dassaut or Saab defray the development costs?” Sukhoi, Lockeed, BAE and MiG did.

Mig did “zilch”… And yes, unless you believe that sudenly the ADLA, and the Luftwaffe, and the Flygvapnet, etc, are all going to acquire entirely foreign hardware, the pockets of severall European MODs do seem to be big enough to fund the development of such equipment, several of them have bigger pockets than the likes of Turkey or Korea.

The FS2020 is projected to have empty weight of 10 tons.. That is J-10-class, pretty much a light fighter to me..

An aircraft that weights the same has a Rafale, carries one more ton of fuel internaly than a Typhoon, with the size of a F-4 Phantom/Tornado GR4, three internal bays and with a F-119 engine is a “light fighter”?

There were two FS2020 concepts, a single engine (the one above) equiped with a “F-119 class Turbofan”, and another twin engined, mit heavier with two “F-414/EJ200”.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]251904[/ATTACH]

Either concept would be directly comparable to the F-35 or the Phoon, not the Gripen or even the J-10.

Cheers

i think the ranges are so short so they use land launched Ashm,
best would be artillery shells with a seeker

Thats precisely what they are doing, RBS15 SFIII, plus 130 mm guns backed by short range Eurospike-ER missiles.