Ladakh Flash Point
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Also mind you, almost every Indian defence deal goes way over budget. Total cost will be close to 10bn in the end.
OMG. LOL... If this is the true per plane price, then its hilarious. This was supposed to be domestic procurement. And domestic procurement prices is supposed to be cheaper than export prices. Yeah, that's Atmanirbhar Bharat working wonders alright.
Anyway, on a more serious note, that price could include add-ons like spare parts, ammunition, and other supplies. Indian media have mentioned before that Tejas Mk1A is gonna be priced around $40 mil a piece. Still, $40mil is expensive for an unproven light fighter. For comparison, Pakistan's JF-17 Block III is speculated to be priced around $30+mil per piece. And existing JF-17 variants have proven operational history.
Off course, that's not the only overpriced plane that India bought:
1) India's Su-30MKI costs $62 mil per plane to procure locally from HAL. While Russian produced Su-30SM is priced at around $40 mil per plane. That's around the same price as a Tejas Mk1A! LOL...
2) Then the big star of the show is India's Rafales, which costs $240mil a piece. Regardless of how much is actually the price of the plane and add-ons. That's still monstrously over-priced for a 4+ generation jet.
Why is India so eager to buy their military toys at such inflated prices whether locally produced or imported? Well we don't have to go there, we kinda know what is going on. India is so happily spending itself to death waging its Cold War with China. No wonder China have not publicly punished India like it did with Australia. There is little point to punish an enemy who is already punishing himself.
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Everyday, when I get in a rut or feel depressed, I know I can count on Ladakh Flash Point to get me out of the blues
To be fair... the Tejas can hardly be called domestic procurement considering pretty much all the major components are procured from foreign companies and a considerable number are not made in India... if we use iPhone ‘production’ in India as an example... It would mean the casing of the iPhone is produced in India... it’s basically a massive jigsaw puzzle assembled by HAL...
I think the inflated price has more to do with production line setup and spare parts than it has to do with anything else... If the current production rate is taken into account it would take anywhere from ~7 years, at the advertised 12 planes per year, to ~10+ years, at the current 8 per year... ammunition and weapons (missiles, bombs and bullets) would be separate procurement and probably mostly foreign again...
Yup it’s expensive and the Indians think they can export an expensive and relatively obsolete fighter to other countries by building logistic bases in the target countries lol... that money should have been spent on getting the thing into proper production first...
This is just pure LOL...
I don’t think it matters if the Indians are procuring from domestic or foreign suppliers as long as it’s made in India no matter how good the original product was/is it turns into problem ridden products... poor flankers are a case in point... The Indians keep blaming the Russian when they are the ones doing regular maintenance and insisted on domestic production... when considering the Indians much talked about advantage of low cost labour and the production cost is still 50% higher than it is in Russia, even when considering the changes and alternative components, it just goes to show how much savings there is to make things in India...
Give the Tejas some more years (or decades but w/e) to become more mature. Ye the project is way overdue but that's the result of bureaucratic inefficiency (i.e. corruption). I know it's not a fair comparison, but even the J-10 had to start off with Russian engines and missiles of Israeli (PL-8) and Italian (PL-11) origin. Even though it was far more 'indigenous' than Tejas, it was only until the J-10C (or at least later batches of J-10B) could it have been said to be fully 100% indigenous. Again, far from being the best parallel example, but from their perspective it is probably better to start off with the program while using foreign components as interim stopgaps, while they plan for it to be fully indigenous by the time ~Mk3 completes development. If they had to build the plane from scratch, it would be safe to assume that the Tejas would have only existed in the form of technical drawings and bittersweet fan art. But for now it is as domestic as it can realistically get.
J-10A/C, even when using Russian engines, participated in International exercises like Aviadart, Falcon Strike, and Shaheen, held their own against flankers, and intercepted U.S./Taiwanese planes. What has Tejas done to justify the exorbitant cost?
The Indians promised to fight and die for anglo america and since indians market themselves as being 'asian'- just like the japanese and chinese (!), white america assumes that they can pull a "Nixon detente" vis-a-vis India and China this time around.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
I’m sure some Indians got lovely European holiday homes and imported sports cars from that gravy train, so it’s actually a great boost to the Indian economy according to Jai Hinds ‘logic’.
I get what you mean and I agree for the most part that it would take some years if not decades for the fighter to become fully ‘indigenous’ and I am by no mean knocking it for that... I was merely saying that calling it domestic procurement was a bit of a stretch that’s all... considering the majority of the systems are foreign in nature further they are not made in India by license or otherwise... if it was just engines and some weapons then I wouldn’t say it as such
The bureaucratic inefficiency is definitely an issue but the bigger issue is the Indian ambition without substance... the Tejas like the Arjun by all accounts is a political project more so than a technical one... it is national pride and a push for domestic production but the politicians didn’t even want to give it a leg up, even when the politicians have finally given it support, the Indians failed to capitalise. Instead of focusing on production capability which was one of the major push for the Tejas in the first place, they immediately update it and then start dreaming about how amazing the MK 2 would be... just comparing numbers, the they are from wiki so a grain of salt, Tejas first flight in 2001 currently 34 produced, this is including all prototypes, the jf 17 first flight 2003 currently ~150 produced and J 10 first flight 1998 currently 400-500 produced...
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