The MOD/MOF knows the price of the aircraft, especially since they had to curtail the 126 plane MMRCA deal down to 36. You are right that it isn't a priority fund-wise, but the Govt seems ok with sending out an RFI to which responses already have arrived.Austin wrote: My bet is on MOD/MOF rejecting IN request for 57 fighter once they see the price , Even IAF with all the muscle pulling managed to get 38 fighter that was the bare necessity needed for it and SFC.
57 fighter would cost the IN more that the cost of AC along with its other compliment like Chopper.AEW and others. 57 fighter is easily more than $10 billion worth on money if you consider the logistics , weapons training and every other thing that needs to set up the fighter , that kind of money IN does not have , it can barely fund its frigate program , the Chopper program is no where to be seen and MineSweeper program is in some MOD Cupboard gathering dust all these are more critical for the navy than any new fighter it wants to procure.
The best case scenario for IN would then be either get one squadron of these fighter and opt for more naval Tejas Mk2 even that is best case one and then it would be still close to a decade to materalise.
AFAIK, the naval helo program is part of the SP plan and is to be taken up urgently (S-70B cancelled) and the minesweeper deal is delayed for God knows what reason(not funds). I didn't know that the IN cannot fund its frigate program. Could you point me towards a source? Thanks in advance