Neshant wrote:
People keep saying 2018 but in fact Dec 31, 2018 is 2019.
9 more years...
I'm beginning to think that these guys just stretch projects out to span their entire career.
If there ever is a future plane project, it should not be put in the hands of the public sector units. They have proven incapable of meeting any deadline. It should definately be done by the private sector.
Hmm..So you want the LCA Mk2 to be ready by when? Yesterday? 2014? 2015? Day after tomorrow?
Could you do us a favour? Could you go research on what all changes are going to be made for the LCA Mk2? And then give us some breakdown of what effort is required to make them happen, who makes what part of the associated technologies in India (feel free to include private sector companies too) and maybe benchmark some other fighter programs to give a proper idea of the time-scale that we should aim for...
Oh and also, which private sector company has built fighter jets in the past, or civilian jets or even civilian turboprops or even has set up an MRO at the very least..and how many dedicated chief designers, lead designers, designers, stress analysts, manufacturing engineers, technicians, etc. do these private sector companies employ in the aerospace field ? I’m assuming that if there are private sector companies that can build India’s next fighter then they must have thousands of such engineers at their disposal, all with the requisite experience..otherwise you see, its like getting civil engineers who’ve only worked on bridges, to go build your next space station. You may find that their work and educational experience is not quite in sync with the work you want them to do.
BTW, I wonder why EADS is still working on the Typhoon Tranche 3 capabilities..they have some of the brightest aerospace engineers in Europe, and yet those lazy guys (as I’m sure they are since PSU guys are like that only, na?) are even now, more than 25-30 years since the program began, still working on new capabilities for the Typhoon which still isn’t fully multi-role..But isn’t EADS a private sector company? Wait, if that didn’t work, and PSU’s obviously don’t work, then who works?
Or let’s look at Dassault. Rafale F3, F3+..backed by a national industrial and technological base that is more than a decade advanced than India and even they are still working on capability enhancement for the Rafale. Lazy Frenchmen, na?
Or lets take Lockheed Martin..F-35 delays, cost escalations, engineering issues, you name it they have it..and this is the world’s largest defence contractor we’re talking about with several decades of fighter design and manufacturing experience..and a private sector company to boot.
I’m assuming the private sector companies in India that you want to have design and build our future plane project are better than EADS, Dassault and Lockheed Martin so no issues, cost escalations or delays are seen.
Best of luck in your search for such a company in India to replace HAL/ADA/DRDO. I’m going to eagerly wait for your detailed analysis on this aspect.