Cybaru wrote:It is also timed when LCA is getting a boat load of publicity! plus their tweet still shows up when you have unfollowed them. That means they are promoting / peddling their views with cash backing. Be good to know who is paying for it.
I am just glad some of these decision makers (at one time) like AM Manmohan Bahadur (a heli pilot) if I am not mistaken are no longer associated with the IAF officially or via organizations like CAPS.
The negativity expressed in almost his articles, is a testament to the amount of hostility desi program managers have to face whenever they propose any program or capability enhancement.
Note:
The moment Tejas was due a significant event, the RM flying it, the program getting 83 MK1A orders and the MWF program presumably getting funded attention, first Yousuf jumped in & then Mr Bahadur.
It speaks volumes about how hard it is for India to spend relative peanuts on indigenization such as a Billion $ on the entire Tejas airframe development till 2015, whereas we spend a Billion euros plus for "enhancements" for a mere 36 Rafales.
And then in the same breath, they accuse DRDO/HAL etc of being slow, incompetent etc. You quibble for 3 years over a local production run of a local fighter, much of whose money goes to a local supply chain, and have no qualms about spending far more on imports of a handful of airframes. If I am a desi supplier, why the heck would I work with either org to supply them? What do I get for investing resources for years in a protracted R&D game and only to receive trickle feed orders? Easier for me to avoid defence altogether, or join hands with HAL to do simpler build to print for some license program (brain off, design copy, limited gains in manufacturing).
Combat capability is a point well understood. The need for the Rafale is too. But how can they not understand economies of scale or the disparity in support?
How are HAL or DRDO to work on complex programs like UCAVs, loyal wingman, swarms if you constantly sabotage local programs and ensure they never rise beyond license assembly?
The lack of vision displayed by the above folks is galling. They want an all singing and dancing answer, but won't let it learn or be funded. No wonder we are in this mess, post Marut. We can see exactly the headwinds continuing that program would have faced.