Or, if you're Israel, you have a strong diaspora to press the case. But your main point us correct: relying on the French is no longer a guarantee—the Mistrale ships are a case in point. And as to whether the US will have more leverage over us, let me observe that they already have enough levers that they don't need to use defense equipment as a pressure point. In fact, having a lot of the defense majors in 49% or more ventures in India constitutes a lobby whose power we can only dimly comprehend.ldev wrote:...
...And lets not kid ourselves, a country which imports both the aircraft and its ammunition is always susceptible to external pressure, whatever be the country of origin. To truly be a strong country, every major weapon system has to be designed and manufactured within the country.
The attitude of the IAF baffles me: on the one hand they don't want Russian stuff yet we seem to be going full tilt on the SU-50 PAK/FA/FGFA—an aircraft whose quality is suspect, whose engines are unreliable and we want to pump $5bn into a R&D black hole at the cost of all other programs.
Even at $11bn (original price), the Rafale is an expensive gap filler to beef up squadron strength which is falling because of execrable/non-existent planning just like the sub fleet.
