NEW DELHI: India will have to carefully evaluate US president Trump’s offer of the fifth-generation F-35 fighter, even though IAF would love to grab it with both hands given the China factor, while the two countries take forward the procurement of six more P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft as well as joint production of Stryker armoured infantry combat vehicles and Javelin anti-tank guided missiles this year.
The expansive India-US defence relationship will get a further boost with PM Modi and Trump “pledging to elevate” military cooperation across air, land, sea, space and cyberspace, institute the ‘Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance (ASIA)’, streamline defence trade and technology exchange, and sign a 10-year major defence partnership framework to renew the one inked in 2015.
The sales pitch for the F-35, which is sold only to Nato countries and close allies, however, was the key takeaway. It might just be “a proposal” at this stage with the long-drawn formal process yet to even begin, as foreign secretary Vikram Misri said, but India will have to increasingly contend with a pushy Trump, whose deal-oriented transactional approach to geopolitics is well-known.
“Starting this year, we will be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars. We are also paving the way to ultimately provide F-35 stealth fighters,” said Trump. The joint statement also noted the US’s “review of its policy on releasing fifth-generation fighters and undersea systems” to India.
The pros and cons will have to be weighed. “India will inexorably be drawn into the US’s sphere of influence with the F-35 acquisition, impinging on its strategic autonomy. Why do you think successive Indian govts over the years have acquired Russian, French and other fighters but never American ones?” an official said.
If India indeed pursues the F-35 offer, it will also have to factor in several things like the off-the-shelf price, the technologies being given, life-cycle costs, maintenance and the like, apart from the strategic benefits it can reap. Utmost care will have to be taken that India’s own 5th-Gen fighter project of the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA), the development of which for over Rs 15,000 crore was cleared by the cabinet committee on security last March, is not adversely impacted.
The operational 5th-Gen jets currently are the American F-35 Lightning-II and F/A-22 Raptor, the Chinese Chengdu J-20 and Russian Sukhoi-57. China has deployed J-20s at its airfields facing India and is even going to soon supply a variant to Pakistan, while it also conducted maiden flights of two new 6th-Gen prototypes in Dec.
With IAF grappling with just 30 fighter squadrons when it is authorised 42.5, and HAL struggling to produce even a 4th-Gen Tejas, Indian security planners are obviously concerned. “With AMCA still at least 10-12 years away from production, IAF will obviously be deeply interested in getting two to three squadrons (36 or 54 jets) of F-35s in the interim. If you need deterrence to prevent wars, you obviously need capabilities,” another official added.