Whether anybody likes it or not Mk 1 A will be delayed badly and is already looking very expensive
The kind of changes that have been demanded by IAF are very demanding
And the problem is the same
No space in that Tiny air frame to accomdate everything
IAF agreed to MK 1A only because of the pressure applied by Parrikar
And for Drdo Mk 1 A was a face saving gesture
Therefore IAF had stated way back in 2016 that MK2 is the real plane that they want and which will come with all the desired features and specs
It was HAL actually. When HAL offered the Mk1A, the IAF grabbed it with both hands. But the problem is our scientists are not futurists, they are never prepared for what's coming next.
For example, IAF got their hands on the R-73 back in the mid 80s. But LCA was designed without the ability to carry the R-73. Anyone with common sense would have told you that the IAF will ask for R-73 and HMDS on the LCA, which they did in 1997. But ADA never prepared for it, and then took a decade to do the necessary work. The LCA should have been designed or a least FBNWed all the way back in 1987.
Any idiot could tell you the IAF will want IFR on the LCA, but even then the IFR design came in so late.
HAL is much more proactive in that sense. That's why we have something like the Mk1A today. Or else we wouldn't have anything to show for. And even Mk2 would have died had it not been for Mk1A.
However even HAL was affected by this inability to see the future. A software defined radio, IMA architecture and new gen transponder and IFF are basic technologies when you are entering the 2020s. HAL should have started work on this back in 2015. What you call "are very demanding" is in fact basic stuff that's expected on a modern aircraft.
Parrikar had nothing to do with all this. Mk1A was in the works long before Modi's election victory. It was IAF that desperately sought out something that could replace the Mig-21s in the short term.
We need the private sector taking over eventually. HAL was fine when we were a poor nation, now it simple doesn't cut it. We will need R&D also to be transferred to the private sector. We need futurists among the scientific manpower that can tell the IAF what they need 15 or 20 years later instead of vice versa. And, in India, that kind of talent can only be nurtured in the private sector. Kinda like what Vstol is doing with MSA. DRDO and PSUs are completely hobbled by bureaucracy.
