In honor of the
of Sino-Indian relations, let's dig into the possibility of CATIC exporting the
J-35/A to the IAF in particular, as well as one of the principal challenges plaguing the IAF, the Indian MoD and the country in general.
The IAF has been a "chronic victim" to one of the fundamental problems afflicting India: a societal wide inability to recognize — if not
outright delusions* about — the realities and limits of Indian power, influence and relevance. In the case of the IAF, this translates to
out of touch procurement practices at odds with the basic axiom that
beggars can't be choosers.
What India has sought for years is for a foreign partner to avail to them the most sensitive and critical of aviation technologies, including 100% of processes essential to cranking out modern turbofans, including the hot parts:
Even though these proposed deals have gone no where for years, and everyone and their dog knows that no one — at least no one with state of the art turbofan technology — will offer India 100% ToT, our deluded Bharati bhais keep on telling themselves that such a deal is achievable:
This is in part why India will
never get the J-35/A, even if China was to offer it. Aside from the fact that New Delhi is too proud and conceited to let the IAF fly Chinese fighters, India will demand the transfer of technologies that Beijing won't even share with Islamabad or Moscow.
To put it crudely, "the IAF is fucked" until our Indian friends get their heads out of the sand.
* Not here to bash India: their peerless propensity for nonsense is an objective reality , even if it's an unpalatable fact to some.