We dont need Rafale to kick out chainese and green-ied productions, because that would be overkill.
What we do need is
some Pakfa(100 nos.) and maybe FGFA-IN (100 nos.) For surprise,
some Sukhoi MKI(200 nos.) for Intimidation & Dominance and
lots of LCA/NLCA MK 1 & MK2(500 nos.) for obvious reasons.
Rest assured, we can have our own Jet museum ,where we can put all the Migs,Jags,Dassaults, so that we can have some reserves for emergency if any.
If Jet-li says we can learn to manufacture Rafales in 20 yrs , then IMHO it is a great vision, for private players. Lets see what efforts they make to increase another type of inventory (not-insured)
Every Nuki-Nation in the World relies on Missiles as Nuke-delivery platform. For Putting aircraft numbers in the sky we dont need Rafale or any other import , LCA is enough.
36 Rafales should be the last and final we purchase from Dassault (overpriced)
This Rafale deal means that all those pretty little songs about indigenisation that we had been hearing since childhood , those budget cuts and boosts , those designs, those complex tenders to infuse technology into Indian PSUs, those years spend on negotiations, that was all b#$%it.
Here it is Katrina, {costly} , imported , very few , showpiece