In India's eyes, China is its strongest competitor, not only because of the border dispute between the two countries, but also because India has always wanted to surpass China as the most powerful country in Asia. In order to win the game with China, India has frantically expanded its military strength in recent years, and some media reported that the Indian military has recently spent about $8 billion to purchase 97 self-developed and self-produced "Brilliant" fighters. Although there is nothing wrong with spending one's own money to support domestic weapons and equipment, we all know that the "Brilliant" fighter is really unreliable, not only the performance is too poor, but the reliability is also low, and last month, a "Brilliant" crashed during routine training. The Indian military has been marketing for several years, but not a single one has been sold.
This makes many people wonder a little: obviously the "Brilliant" is not good, why does the Indian military want to "buy, buy, buy", why not save the money to buy the "Brilliant" and buy the fifth-generation stealth fighter, after all, the Chinese Air Force is already equipped with J-20, and there are more and more of them. In contrast, the main fighters of the Indian Air Force are the Su-30MKI and "Rafale" purchased from Russia and France, these two or four generation aircraft, although they are also quite capable of fighting, but compared with the fifth-generation aircraft such as J-20, after all, there is a gear difference, if the two meet in air combat, even if they do not talk about hanging, J-20 also has a stable advantage. India, which has always liked to compare itself with China, is it really not anxious at all when it sees that the Chinese Air Force has fifth-generation aircraft?
To tell the truth, the Indian Air Force must be anxious, looking at the current global military powers, counting them, it may be that India and France are not equipped with fifth-generation aircraft, but the situation in France is different, in wartime it has NATO protection, NATO is in the array, but there are a lot of fifth-generation aircraft, so the question is, what is the reason why India does not buy fifth-generation aircraft? On the one hand, it cannot be bought. At present, the countries in the world that can export fifth-generation aircraft, that is, China, the United States and Russia, it is impossible for China to sell fifth-generation aircraft to India, and the United States and Russia may export fifth-generation aircraft to India, but Russia's production is not enough, and its own air force still has to be equipped. The United States has sold the F-35, a fifth-generation aircraft, to India, but India wants to buy it, and the United States has a condition.
Even when exporting the F-35, India has to buy another fighter from the United States, the F-21, which is also a fighter specially tailored by the United States for India. In addition, we will take this opportunity to gradually squeeze Russian-made fighters out of the equipment list of the Indian Air Force. But after being wronged many times, India now seems to have learned wisely, even if it doesn't want the F-35, it doesn't want this F-21 as a low-cost and high-priced thing. Therefore, now the United States and India are at a stalemate, and it is estimated that for a while and a half, the two sides will not be able to negotiate properly, and only when the Indian military really feels that the Indian Air Force must be equipped with fifth-generation aircraft, it may compromise and make concessions and agree to the United States' request for bundled sales.
Another reason is that India wants to develop its own, perhaps because it sees China make the J-20, and India thinks it can do it. After all, the self-developed fifth-generation aircraft is "fragrant" than the imported fifth-generation aircraft, not only the price is relatively cheap, but also the delivery speed is relatively guaranteed. Therefore, in recent years, India has been exploring fifth-generation aircraft, but with India's strength, even if it can develop a fifth-generation aircraft, it may take a long time, and when other countries use sixth-generation aircraft, India's fifth-generation aircraft may be available.