That design appears to have only one internal weapons bay. A problem that needs to be rectified soon if this aircraft is to serve in the strike role.

I have faith in HAL but I rather doubt they can develop an F-35 class fighter design on their own. A wise idea would be to partner up with a few other nations that are looking for an F-35 alternative(France, Sweden, Korea et al). Areas that HAL is weak in can be given to other countries(Snecma for the engines, for instance).

the HJT-36 is hardly delayed and is due to join IAF service soon..the IAF has no real shortage of intermediate jet trainers, so your point about it is totally moot. If anything, the Sitara program’s deadlines were only delayed because they changed the engine to the AL-55I and it was delayed. I’m sensing that you’re only interested in criticizing indigenous programs for some reason, so I won’t discuss this any further.

Anything wrong with criticism? Yes, I have a reason: what I said about the delays is true. It first flew in 2003 and even today only two prototypes exist, both of which have crashed at least once. It had its ‘maiden’ filight with the AL-55 engine only in 2009 and is unlikely to enter IOC till 2012(assuming no further delays).

You can praise the Kiran, but it is an old plane that’s nearing the end of its service life and needs urgent replacement.

That’s my point. Planes that are still in development(especially if they’ve been in development for a long time) don’t merit a formal designation until they are finally accepted by the Air Force IMO. This also applies to the HJT-36(delayed by years and still in an early stage of testing even as the IAF is left with inadequate jet trainers) and HTT-40(a paper plane that will take at least 6 years to develop while more pilots crash and die flying the HPT-32 death traps; since HAL doesn’t want IAF to import even common turboprop trainers).

India’s AEW&C Programme Gets Ready For Platform Flight Tests

Source

I was pleasantly surprised to see these pics since I had no idea the project had gone this far. However I do not see any sign of front and rear-facing antennas in the antenna array. How will it achieve the 360-degree capability the IAF had demanded?

+1

$ 1 billion for 6 C130J
$ 5.8 billion for 10 C17s
$ 10 billion for MRCA

Thats $17+ billion over the next couple of years.

How much more for another foreign aircraft for the Navy?

Meanwhile Indian efforts are derided and underfunded by the armed forces (both personnel and R&D budgets). Where the ***removed by moderator*** are the jholawala’s protesting all this profligate spending on “phoren maal”?

New mantra of Indian Armed Forces :- Have money, will splurge.

Even if it is JSF.

Even if it is Paper-Tiger Sea Gripen. We will even fund Sea Gripen’s development if SAAB wants us to.

With all due respect neither MiG-29K nor N-LCA will have anywhere near the overall capability of the F-35, and naval PAK-FA is nowhere on the horizon. For its long-term plans the Indian navy’s air arm needs a fifth-gen fighter to maintain a decisive qualitative advantage over any regional rivals(read: Su-30MKK2, J-15). There isn’t any fighter that fits better.

Frankly I can’t understand all the heartburn over this issue considering even most of the European navies are going for F-35 instead of Sea Typhoon, Sea Gripen or so on even with their significantly more advanced aerospace industries.

As for the N-LCA, I’ve never understood why that project was necessary. The LCA was designed from the onset as a low-cost replacement to the IAF’s massive MiG fleet and in that aspect it’s approaching a winner. However as a naval fighter it has many inherent design difficulties(Delta wing, single-engine, low payload capacity, limited combat radius) that will leave it unsuitable for carrier operations compared to the MiG-29K.

In my opinion it should have been shelved after the Indian Navy gave the order for another 29 MiG-29Ks. The IN has no real need to operate more than one carrier-based fighter(We don’t want a logistical nightmare like the IAF is facing) but if it has to select another one then it should go for the best option possible, that being a stealthy design.

Isn’t there a road-mobile version of Topol-M already? Or is this it?

That said the Buk-M2/M3 are currently in the process of induction. Won’t it create problems if they tried to push a replacement already?