While US-India defense ties have improved over the past decade, the issue here is whether there is a requisite level of trust at the current juncture to award a big fighter contract (Boeing estimates final numbers may reach 400)??? The disputes over signing of monitoring agreements and sales to Pakistan will make such a deal political tricky and of course subject to opposition from the military and bureaucrats. C-17s, C-130s and sale of engines are on a different level compared to purchasing a fleet of fighters which will be a main component of your defense capabilities until approximately 2050. Since a couple of defense scams in the 80s, governments and policy makers in India have been wary of being too adventurous in their procurement plans.
Very good points!
I love your knowledge of India. I visit India twice or thrice a year on business (and have for over a decade) but you certainly outshine me in your local knowledge
If I remember from our past conversations (each of which was intelectually stimulating) you are not even an Indian and you don’t even live in India.
Correct?
Was there an article posted on FR on how the US gutted certain technology from the C130 sold to India? If that can happen on a C130, what confidence is there that any fighter technology sold by the US will not have (at least some) monkey model aspect to it? At least with the Typhoon (or for that matter, Rafale - although I've come to hard terms thT the Rafale has a hard road to win this) would not have such constraints, and the level of technology transfer, as well as systems such as the Meteor and StormShadow, would be good value add. Furthermorw, India would be more or less a full partner (not that such an animal exists, but MUCH closer than if they selected anything from Lockmart or Boeing). Finally, I doubt the Europeans would be stripping equipment!!!!!
You can easily tell where my biases are as pertains to what India should buy - i.e heavy twin-engined amd European.