I doubt the MMRCA is unlikely to happen either. Given the kickbacks hungry IAF top brass, I'd give another 5-7 years to finalize a jet and complete negotiations. By the time necessary bureaucratic permissions and red-tape is overcome, setting up a manufacturing facility, establish a supply chain...it would be atleast 10yrs on an optimistic note for the first aircraft to roll out by which most nations (maybe pak too) would start inducting 5th gen fighters.
Corruption can happen at the lower end of the item chain. For example, you can buy special forces tents for 12 Cr and people can pocket 1 Cr. But corruption rarely happens in big ticket deals because of the amount of media scrutiny involved. Also, the govt is hellbent on making defence deals look clean, not to mention the Modi govt has been ridiculously clean anyway. So, if the top brass is corrupt, you can see it happening in cases where political involvement is minor, like the funds that the top brass are allowed to spend without significant civilian involvement.
As for MMRCA, yes, this will be a very long process, but it will be at least 2-3 times faster than bringing TEDBF into service. A signature between 2023 and 2025 would mean the first Indian made MMRCA will become available only after 2028 for any of the contenders except for Rafale. Rafales can come in a year or two earlier.
TEDBF will be ready only around 2032, and service induction can happen around 2035, considering the project starts this year.
ADA should instead develop an aircraft version of the TEDBF instead which would fulfill IAF's Twin engine requirement while MWF should act as a replacement for the outgoing Migs
That's not going to work out for the IAF. TEDBF is an IN-specific design and changing it to IAF specs will be expensive, time-consuming and the end product may end up being inferior to the naval version. It's because the IAF's working environment is much more challenging than the IN's. Mountains eat away 20-30% of engine power, so the IAF needs extra high performance machines, something that doesn't exist today.
That's why AMCA's TWR is 1.2 at loaded weight. In the exact same configuration, even the presumably high TWR jet like the Typhoon has a TWR of 1.07. So a TEDBF with 100KN engines will be nothing more than a present day Typhoon, which is not enough for the IAF. Also why an aircraft like the F-35 won't be suitable for the IAF due to its ridiculously low TWR.
Also, the IN seems to be less interested in stealth and more interested in other aspects like long range strike, larger payload and higher range/endurance, no different from the USN. The design goals are likely very different compared to waht the IAF needs.
Another important criteria for the IAF is, the aircraft should already be operational. ORCA and TEDBF will obviously not meet the cut. Otherwise, IAF can wait for AMCA Mk1 anyway, it will be ready for induction long before TEDBF, at least by 3 or 4 years, especially considering AMCA is an approved project while TEDBF is still to go through the processing rigmarole. Furthermore, even AMCA Mk1 will have a TWR of 1.1 and hence a higher TWR than the Typhoon. Point being TEDBF will be inferior to even AMCA Mk1 in terms of perfomance, never mind stealth and other features, and will arrive well after it's ready for induction, making the entire process pointless.
The idea behind MMRCA is to acquire a previous generation design but with 5th gen avionics and make it operational as quickly as possible in order to maintain an edge in the region. So it's natural that the IAF's goal is to acquire an existing aircraft. The IAF made an exception for SE MII in favour of an indigenous design because the alternatives are either in development (Gripen E) or are too old (F-16). They are not going to give the same exception to TE MII, since its acquisition is much more critical.
Also, ORCA looks like a fan-made render and there's no official confirmation from HAL either
Yep. Been too long and there's been no sound from them. It's probably backfired, making such an unrealistic design, that they do not want to put their name at the bottom lest it hurts their reputation.
