With the push on Tejas Mk2 and TEDBF, will the 114 MRFA materialize? Read the twitter thread below. Will be posting some other tweets in the Tejas threads as well, on this issue.
https://twitter.com/cvkrishnan/status/1 ... 88003?s=20 --->
1) One point that Indian Defense Twitter has definitely taken to from today’s big announcement by USAF chief is the relevance of a 4.5th generation fighter in the decades to come. This in some ways of sorts, validates India’s push for TEDBF and LCA Mk2 developments.
2) But let’s not forget how they are going about it. A 4 year techno strategic study just to understand & determine what kind of a 4.5th gen platform they want for the next few decades. This meticulousness & first principles based approach to identifying SQR is what sets them apart.
3) They are not filling their SQR with recommendations from few think tanks and from a laundry list of features and capabilities that are mentioned in the open source from across the world. The capability requirement document is a new genesis document by itself derived from an
4) extensive study of the threats of the future, the tech paradigms and the kind of war that the USAF wants to wage. It is as original as it gets. THIS is the reason the Chief wants to go for a clean-sheet design. So that they could define every variable new for the future and (+)
5) not be hamstrung by the design choices and philosophies of the past or the current. There is a deliberate move to think afresh from the start. And from identifying base variables. Not based on a school of thinking of “an improvement from the current”.
6) I can bet now today, that when the USAF draws up the requirements and sets about development there would be significant new technologies added to this 4.5th gen that we wouldn’t have thought of for a 4.5 gen aircraft whether Super Sukhoi upgrade or LCA Mk2 or others.
7) The USAF will go to the American Academia and research ecosystem. Dig into what research work is going on in flight control architecture, propulsion, sensor fusion, aerodynamic flow control, stealth, Electronic warfare and would come up with totally new specs, that’d help it (+)
8] Dominate the capability curve. This entire thread is to say, there are going to be 4.5th gen fighters and then there are going to be 4.5th Gen Fighters. And there’s going to be whole lot of difference between catch up tech development and pioneering tech development.