I thought that T-X requirements demanded a clearly supersonic aircraft like T-38, which would put M-346 out, but I guess I was wrong?

I mean, seriously, there was Armilla Patrol, then Desert Storm, then Desert Fox, then OIF, then Lord knows how many other crisis and bombing campaigns which necessited RN presence. But nooo, it was totally unthinkable that T45’s might have to deploy to Gulf…

A italian made product looking better than a Korean one. What a surprise!

It’s Russian… 🙂

(Though, original Yak-130 looked bit different and Italianized one is IMO slightly better looking.)

Good point, and especially true now… *snort*

Yes, but if you look at other European countries that are in the process of buying new fighter jets, then (with the notable exception of oil-rich Norway) the numbers tend to end at the very low end; this includes the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden. Even 60 Gripen would be too expensive for Finland. The numbers will come down. Or they have to sacrifice something else (but what? The army? the navy?)

Those are NATO-countries which do not need large armed forces. Or so the thinking goes.

Current plan is that HX program will be funded by special budget (ie. more public debt) and not from normal defence acquisition funds, which would be crippled by such expenditure. However, it is obviously easy for politicians now to promise that some future government will shovel out billions, so some skepticism is well warranted…

Yes, the official line is that Air Force expects to maintain current number of fighters – ie. 60+ airframes. No indication whatsoever has come out about lower force level.

Okay. What about the claim that there is nothing in the history of Indian acquisitions to suggest that FMS deal could go faster? In that respect, what is your explanation with respect to the speed of the P-8 acquisition?

I could just as well choose & pick relatively smoothly gone Indo-Euro or Indo-Russian deals – you can’t cherrypick one or two relatively successful acquisitions from US and declare “any US FMS sale would go just as smoothly” and ignore disasters like M777 acquisition.

The core difference is in cost competitiveness, where low volume manufacturing in Europe loses out (Airbus aside). Europe had a market for some 1,200 odd fighter aircraft, which they split between three manufacturers while duplicating large chunks of the development effort. The economic consequences are quite predicable.

Neither US entry even made it to the final in MMRCA competition, so perhaps they are not that cost-competive after all?

Sorry that should have been shouldn’t have ordered it (they didn’t) in the ‘second place’ when the line was nearly out of orders and the costs had consequently been revised upwards. And the line was out of orders by the time they got around to a decision on the purchase. Point being, the deal wasn’t held up in red tape (on either end).

I’m sorry, that is completely absurd argument. M777 deal was delayed by EXACT SAME REASON Rafale deal is – Indians were unhappy about the cost.

As for the helicopter deal, it was delayed largely because of Indian bureaucracy – Boeing set like 10 deadlines for the Indians, who kept missing them time after time. No FMS system is going to help if other side can’t get its act together. It was pretty much same thing with Scorpene deal with the French.