Twitter thread by @Indrani1_Roy
https://x.com/Indrani1_Roy/status/17735 ... 71100?s=20 --->
#TejasMk2: Thoughts are boiling over.
Many things have changed since 2005, when the first 5th generation fighter F-22 was operationalized. Today's 4.5 generation fighters are technically superior to F22 in every aspect but stealth and thrust to weight ratio.
There so I am not going to use the term 4th generation and 5th generation. I am going to say stealth and non-stealth aircraft.
There is no bigger exponent of stealth aircraft than USA. and they have been very clear about their lessons.
Stealth aircraft are the tip of the spear. Because it is financially unviable to maintain a fleet of only stealth aircraft. So much so, that they are finding all kinds of adaptations for F22 and F35. "Stealthy pylons", "stealthy drop tanks". God knows what they mean!
And they are designing non-stealthy fighters in the presence of 1000s of F35, which in itself is a few steps back from the bleeding edge of stealth which is the F22.
And let's look at the "6th-generation" aircrafts. We have kind of run out of ideas!!!
One thing is quickly evolving 6th generation aircraft will have the ability to work as relays or mothership for guiding attritable unmanned wingman aircrafts. So, do the 6th generation really need to be stealthy? Or should it have the highest aero-efficiency affording it ...
... volume to hand true and hand long, just outside the reach of adversarial kinetic responses?
One thing is for sure that a swarm of attritable UAVs is going to be much more effective and much more survivable than any stealth aircraft!
Forgetting the global scenario, and returning to India. If IAF feels the need for MRFA whose evaluations have not even begun! Which means it is a few years away from orders! Which means even more years from production!
Then there is some explanation to do!
For MRCA the time from selection to first delivery was over 7 years. Even if we say that we can identify the aircraft and finish cost-negotiation in say 3 years (near impossible, but let's say), then the first MRFA aircraft will take of in more than a decade!
So, anybody who supports MRFA (With Gripen NG) as a contender and questions Tejas Mk2 should revisit their biases and check their hypocrisy meters!
As for AMCA vs Tejas Mk2, one needs to understand two things.
1. In AMCA there are real research problems to be solved. In Tejas Mk2, there are few engineering problems to be solved.
2. The technical readiness of the entire ecosystem to produce and maintain AMCA en-mass.
If the US is revisiting its stealth aircraft question regarding cost of operating a "all-stealth" airforce, then India with 1/5th the GDP and 1/35th per-capita GDP should be very careful.
Tejas Mk2 is the next logical step after Mk1A. This should be clear like day!