What's new

India To Make 5th Generation Combat Aircrafts within the next 10 years

Honestly speaking, India should just dump LCA Tejas project & invest the money in the 5th Gen. programme. But keep in mind you are dealing with DRDO, a resource and finance guzzling organization that hardly lives up to the expectation. If only it would put operational/force requirements over its self-esteem, self-actualization, and misplaced notion of industrial & institutional prestige things might be somewhat different.
 
Last edited:
On a serious note there's few nations on this planet that are capable of producing an engine that has the power and efficiency to power a fifth generation aircraft they are the US, Russia, UK, France (lesser degree) and China has just about got there.
 
On a serious note there's few nations on this planet that are capable of producing an engine that has the power and efficiency to power a fifth generation aircraft they are the US, Russia, UK, France (lesser degree) and China has just about got there.
ARDE or IAF always had multiple options in sourcing various components, so it might not be an issue sourcing one from GE/Safra/P&W/RR etc. If we go for more Rafales, Safran might as well collaborate with GTRE to get the desired thrust/power output from the Kaveri GTX and develop variants suitable to power LCA-Mk2, MCA and AMCA.

Infact, the Turkish TFX is using Eurojet's EJ2000 and Korean KAI KFX is being tested with GE/P&Ws engines. Chinese J-20 is using variants of the AL-31 and only recently there were reports of using a local WS variant engine.

5th gen tech is more about aerodynamics, avionics, stealth coatings and sensor fusion which DRDO & ARDE to focus on if they want to achieve their first flight in a decade
 
ARDE or IAF always had multiple options in sourcing various components, so it might not be an issue sourcing one from GE/Safra/P&W/RR etc. If we go for more Rafales, Safran might as well collaborate with GTRE to get the desired thrust/power output from the Kaveri GTX and develop variants suitable to power LCA-Mk2, MCA and AMCA.

Infact, the Turkish TFX is using Eurojet's EJ2000 and Korean KAI KFX is being tested with GE/P&Ws engines. Chinese J-20 is using variants of the AL-31 and only recently there were reports of using a local WS variant engine.

5th gen tech is more about aerodynamics, avionics, stealth coatings and sensor fusion which DRDO & ARDE to focus on if they want to achieve their first flight in a decade

Dude wishful thinking, P&W? Forget it, aside the French who may offer you some technical help everyone else is a no go, I mean who wants to help a nation with engine technology and within a few years put out jets that rival theirs?
You gave the example of Turkey and S.Korea, they are license builds locally and do not involve the sharing of sensitive tech information.
Fifth generation is about the engine.
 
one of my friend who kept failing in B.Sc. decided that he would go for M.Sc. degree first and then finish B.Sc. later, this way B.Sc. will become easier to pass.

Even if you make a trashier 5th Gen, making 4th Gen will become easier.
 
All,

Let's try to be unbiased and evaluate the claims.

Agreed, from scratch it took 30 years for India to produce a bare minimum 4th gen plane with numerous imported components.

Now understand what is the time line for a true 4+ gen plane aka MWF... 8 years... Even 10..that is a substantial improvement.

No one in Indian Subcontinent, including China, will be fielding an all 5th gen fleet even by 2040. Its prohibitively expensive.

Lets take a practical scenario... In 2035...India manufacturers everything domestically except for the. Utting edge tech....Take the analogy... Akin to saying that in 15 years India is capable of equipping its regular forces 80-85%domestically and imports 80-85% for special forces... Still its a massive military industrial comex that can then strive to compete internationally.

We all love BMWs and Audis.... But majority of vehicles even in USA are Ford's, Toyota's and Honda's.

So jingoism aside, let's be unbiased and aware of the bigger picture.... There is a reason why Defence Minister has set a goal of only 70% indigenisation by 2030.

Indian Private Military Complex will grab all the low hanging fruits... Easy, doesn't require massive R&D and creates jobs.

Me being totally unbiased as an active Investment Manager :)
 
Dude wishful thinking, P&W? Forget it, aside the French who may offer you some technical help everyone else is a no go, I mean who wants to help a nation with engine technology and within a few years put out jets that rival theirs?
You gave the example of Turkey and S.Korea, they are license builds locally and do not involve the sharing of sensitive tech information.
Fifth generation is about the engine.
I'm not saying P&W or RR would help us in building our own but they might as well be license builds or directly importing the whole engine like how we're sourcing the GE404 currently. 5th gen is not just the engine but a ton of other stuff and developing an entire engine solely on our own would require gargantuan efforts in terms of testing infra, research colabs, funding etc and a country like China has only been recently able to do that. If we get the other stuff right, we'd probably strike a deal with the Russians or French to provide the engines atleast in the initial phases without ToT until Kaveri takes shape. Infact, Kaveri is still working but is slightly underpowered
 
All,

Let's try to be unbiased and evaluate the claims.

Agreed, from scratch it took 30 years for India to produce a bare minimum 4th gen plane with numerous imported components.

Now understand what is the time line for a true 4+ gen plane aka MWF... 8 years... Even 10..that is a substantial improvement.

No one in Indian Subcontinent, including China, will be fielding an all 5th gen fleet even by 2040. Its prohibitively expensive.

Lets take a practical scenario... In 2035...India manufacturers everything domestically except for the. Utting edge tech....Take the analogy... Akin to saying that in 15 years India is capable of equipping its regular forces 80-85%domestically and imports 80-85% for special forces... Still its a massive military industrial comex that can then strive to compete internationally.

We all love BMWs and Audis.... But majority of vehicles even in USA are Ford's, Toyota's and Honda's.

So jingoism aside, let's be unbiased and aware of the bigger picture.... There is a reason why Defence Minister has set a goal of only 70% indigenisation by 2030.

Indian Private Military Complex will grab all the low hanging fruits... Easy, doesn't require massive R&D and creates jobs.

Me being totally unbiased as an active Investment Manager :)

The problem is not the incredible ignorance you have displayed here, it is the fact that you even have the nerve to claim "being totally unbiased". Your politicians and "scientists" all share the same traits. It's in the DNA of you lot, no way out.
 
The problem is not the incredible ignorance you have displayed here, it is the fact that you even have the nerve to claim "being totally unbiased". Your politicians and "scientists" all share the same traits. It's in the DNA of you lot, no way out.

Well hes not wrong China will start production of 6th gen starting in 2035. At current rates of production of a squadron or 2 a year China will only have 500-1000 fifth gens by 2040. I mean I'm sure they'll be able to match that by buying like 2 squadrons after a few decades of bargaining lol.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom