Which fighter aircraft is best suited for India's needs? Abhijit Iyer-Mitra reveals 

I am using earphones, just being careful around Abhijit Iyer Mitra.

Tejas mk2 is real deal, mk1 is just filling the time gap.

Please bring Abhijit on the latest disengagement agreement with China for at least 30 minutes, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

My rule of thumb is ask Abhijit Iyer-Mitra for information and not his opinion.

Abhijit's logic 1. Buy F21 from unreliable USA (when F21 will start producing in india, USA will give IOC to its 6th gen platform) 2. Buy Gripen from Sweden (more than 8 aircraft lost due to technical glitches). Also Sweden is such great country in world which has absolute no power in UN & no body takes seriously in EU. Wow great opinion Abhijit

Unfortunately, despite of him lobbying so hard for f21, Indian government selected 83 tejas, that is paining him a lot.

With respect, I must disagree with Mr. Abhijit Iyer-Mitra on a few important points. The main problem with fitting components into a light fighter like Tejas is not so much one of miniaturization as much as accepting lower capability at the same level of technology for both platforms. The main radar for example could be made with the same design but it will be forced to have a smaller antenna because of the limited space and weight available for it. Making an antenna small enough to fit is not particularly difficult but it will have far fewer transmit and receive elements and this will reduce the effective range and the effectiveness of other features. Thus it is not so much a technological problem as a problem inherent to size. This leads to the core difference in my recommendations compared to his. I suggest larger fighters rather than smaller fighters because no matter what technology you have access to it will be more effective in the larger platform by a large margin. With fighter aircraft there is seldom a second chance, whoever get first look and first shot often gets the first kill and they can even have a chance when outnumbered by lesser fighters. This can be either a medium fighter with a single extremely powerful engine or a medium to large twin engine fighter. A twin engine fighter does have higher operational costs but can be larger, can have more flexibility in engine selection, and can have superior performance figures such as maximum speed, total thrust, and maximum payload. Furthermore, the main argument against twin engines is cost for maintenance but modern Western fighters tend to have vastly more reliable and less maintenance intensive engines than those of Russian design. An Su-30MKI is a capable fighter overall and India is able to do most of the engine maintenance with locally sourced parts now as an OEM but the Saturn engines require something like twenty times more frequent overhaul and regular maintenance according to the standard schedule, which is a good idea to adhere to. This is the main reason why Su-30MKI have much lower availability to actually fly at any given time than Western designs, because it requires a lot of time in the hangar doing both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. But a Rafale or F-15EX require much less maintenance and thus even with twin engines the maintenance time and costs are not that bad. The F-15EX requires much less maintenance than legacy F-15s and has significant upgrades that make it worthwhile, such as the brand new radar warning receiver system. Maintenance costs for F-15EX should be only slightly more than a Super Hornet and Rafale should be pretty close to the same as F-15EX in those ongoing costs. Now consider the baseline likely adversary. It is not JF-17 or a stealth fighter. It is likely to be a PLA J-10 or one of the Flanker family variants because of the huge numbers of them in the PLA. J-10 is the most numerous with over 400 already in service and it is still in production, rapidly replacing the J-7 (MiG-21 variants). J-10 is a medium sized delta wing of similar layout to Gripen or Rafale and is rumored to have been developed largely from stolen Western project design details. J-10 (9000kg empty weight) is the baseline and it is in between Gripen (8000kg) and Rafale (~10,000kg) in size. This size difference is important because it determines the limits to potential capabilities. Light fighters in general used to be more practical when close range engagements were more likely and can still be of some use if you are a tiny country with a hostile neighbor where you will be in combat range as soon as you take off. But for large countries and those with more diverse needs a medium to large fighter is best going forward. Sensors are becoming much more capable, both on aircraft and on missiles. Missiles are becoming much more agile and some can even turn around after launch to be used at targets directly behind. Missiles are also gaining much more range and are becoming much more likely to get a hit at long range because of rocket motor developments and other improvements. This together means that a close range fight will be extremely lethal, with both sides taking heavy losses. But it also makes it far more likely to get a kill before entering close range. Medium to heavy fighters can use their larger and more numerous sensors combined with larger weapons payloads and modern situational awareness to dominate over light fighters of the same level of technology. This all means that I think that the best fighter for India would be Rafale, with F-15EX a second choice. Rafale gets the top of the list partly because it is already in service, partly because Dassault and Safran have offered a high level of locally sourced component manufacture, and partly because it is already mature in development and ready to build immediately in large volume while F-15EX is still in final testing. Tejas and other light fighters are inadequate for use against J-10C and modern Flanker variants which are the likely adversaries. Tejas is only potentially useful as a lead in fighter trainers, aggressor trainers, and emergency reserve combat aircraft. Cost for Rafale is rather high but the cost for MWF is likely to increase up near the same cost by the time it is eventually in full production, years later and at a lower level of capability than Rafale. If Rafale is produced in India in large volume and with a gradually increasing level of local components the cost should be reasonable and a good bargain for the level of capability. Currently Tejas Mk1A is struggling to reach 60% local parts, Rafale would start with 70% local parts and thus would be of even greater benefit to local industry. Rafale is more capable than J-10 while Tejas is less capable and that will be a significant factor in which aircraft return home after combat. If you have reached the end of this long wall of text, thank you very much for your attention.

The Tejas mk1/1a is meant for interception and point defense. Why is he even comparing it to f 16 which can also act as an offensive fighter? He can compare mk2.

Who even gave Gripen as an option in the question? Saab pulled out of the proposal cos they know India won't buy 114 Gripens. Saab sold awacs to Pakistan. No way in hell we'll buy their Gripens. End of story

'Place the order of 5-600 Tejas nowww!!!' ... This guy is something else 🤣🤭

Waiting for some more defence experts in the comments section😂😂

Is he competent enough to comment on the subject .

Totally disagree with the perception they shown about tejas. He has very few knowledge of IAF requirements and their strategy.

I shaw his radar and jammer story 😂 then am done with it. 🤦‍♂️

It seems he is angry because he could not get his way with the government..

Many JF17's gave been grounded due to structural and electrical issues. How is it superior to Tejas? When the most knowledgeable person (IAF chief) trusts the Tejas and Rafale, how can one question his knowledge?

What about tejas fly by wire control system..?

To be Frank I only watch his defence related videos for entertainment but he has a good knowledge regarding rest of stuff but when it comes to defence it's pure entertainment

Abhijit ji here i would disagree, tejas mk 1a will be equipped with aesa elta 2052 for now and the uttam aesa later, tejas mk1 a will have a rcs of 0.5 m2 it will have irst pods maws rwr jammers hmds ews Astra mk 1 Astra m2 (160 kms bvr) Asraam and meteor too uttam. The rcs of jf17 is 10m2 owing to its aluminum frame it has structural issues and has seem many complaints of being grounded due to cracks on the fuselage. That the reason why Bangladesh and other prospective buyers have refused it. How can you say jf17 is a even a match. Its klj 7 radar is no match and pl 15 cannot be coupled with the klj7.

PGurus - how come AIM now is a military aeronautical expert for Indian Defence needs ? the IAF Multirole, fighter, bomber, Recce EW etc needs are based on the threat perceptions present & future. We are not an expeditionary force, we have Limited Resources as you are aware the pie is smaller and lastly IAF operates on all kinds of terrains of desert, plain, Sea & High Altitude terrain where very few Manufacturers are available as on date.

The fundamental problem: look at our Navy, they have much proper plan for localisation, Army n Airforce, they have different vision.

It looks as if we have buy some best industrial equipment from anywhere in the world! So go for this and that aircraft and buy the best! The fact is that IAF is now fully satisfied with Tejas and we need to go with what IAF wants. Finally, they have to fly and fight with the planes we buy. Besides, Atamnirbharata in defense production is the policy of the government. Further, MK II, AMCA is a path to scaling up Tejas MK1. So we will have and fight with Tejas and AMCA; Abhijit is an expert and we should listen to him carefully! On F-15 he is right. He is of course right in blaming us for lack of defense industrial base, lack of funding etc. Rafales are required for nuclear delivery, once Jaguars are retired.

That's Raag Desh on Santoor

We need only one fighter,,,,, F-41 or F-42 ,(depending on Mitra Babu's age)😉😉

Frankly don't you think with our missile tech, it's more easier and devastating than fighter planes as they can be launched from anywhere and can hit targets with pinpoint accuracy. Each aircraft costing 1000 crores a piece.

Abijit is a flight jet design expert ??? Haha 😂 laughable 😂 .... shame that P GURU is making such programs ...

From outside of the Indian military aerospace sector, not many people know the value and the technology depth the LCA program has achieved with the full-quadraplex fly-by-wire system of the Tejas. There hasn't been much reporting or even understanding of what a fly-by-wire aircraft is compared to a JF-17 or any traditional fighter in this class. The Swedish Gripen, which is the closest aircraft to the Tejas as had multiple crashes and incidents, when its Fly-By-Wire was being developed. And here with the LCA program, we went through the learning curve with all the internatioanl sanctions put in place and now the system has matured for it to be ported to other aircraft programs.

Suggestions coming from abhijit who can’t even drive his car straight 😂😂😂

Why reuploading bits of it again. 😑

Sweden and Pakistan are deeply tied strategically and politically they sold AWACS to them but AIM says India should buy Gripen. Its Just like buying weapons from China. I am seriously getting some doubts regarding this person now

500-600 Tejas means recruiting, training & employing around additional 2000 fighter pilots + flight engineers, technicians & whole ecosystem. Are we selling Maruti car here?

The reason why missile programs and rocket programs were successful was because they had great minds like Vikram Sarabhai and Abdul kalam.

Just a thought, can a nuclear power backed fighter jet be made? Just like nuclear powered submarines and aircraft carriers.

This was too short😔

as we are heavily investing in LCA mk2, TEDBF and AMCA all together , it does not leave much bugdet for 114 foreign fighters. also 83 mk1A deal was so heavy and imagine the budget needed in future production of 150+ mk2 and amca. i dont understand him saying buy 400 tejas buy f16 and no rafale. we don't have that much money . i think that india should keep focussing on indigenous project of mk2 and AMCA and maximum we can do is to give a follow on order of 36 rafale..not more than that.

Agree fully with AMI's challenge, place orders for 500-600 Tejas planes. One way out is to have limited, distributed Tejas platform-centric capabilities (ISR/Sead/Strike etc.), with robust airspace networking capabilities.

IAF is seeing tejas as a point air defence and for this role tejas is perfect and the mark 2 varient brings technological advantage to India over jf17

This guy should do mobile unboxing & review videos. Not more than that. I don't know if he ever touched any fighter jet, let's not include flying and combat.

Why does it seem this video is highly edited.

Love Abhijit’s dance move with the pranams

I am not convince by his arguments, his only point seems to be, if others are not able to miniaturize fighter jet , we also cannot do that or try that, also he is contradicting by saying we need 500 high price Tejas rather than cheaper option

Abhijeet is the best unqualified expert

This is for pgurus team, basically Tejas construction (mostly) is with carbon fiber and jf17 is not used a single piece of carbon fiber which resulted 50% of jf17 are grounded (read in forums), Tejas 0% accident free record, and using AESA radar, so my question then how is JF17 superior to Tejas...?

I think Japanese incereases the size because of other reasons they want more maneuverability, they increase the size of wings only other dimensions were same

Abhjijit Iyer is saying to buy fighter jets from USA . He doesn't know that USA is a unreliable defence partner . And Russian jets are not so suitable for IAF.That's why we purchased Rafaele from France .Every aspect needs to be taken into consideration to buy anything significant . And at the end Tejas is a good aircraft its not what he is saying

Agree with one thing , Bulk thejas order is good for defence industry ,but I don't know HAL is capable for that

He is repeating the same crap for years regarding Tejas programme, IAF has accepted it's a good fighter. He should restrict himself to strategic affairs not complex technologies like Fighter Aircraft

ONE THING I UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS HESITATION FROM INDIAN AIR-FORCE FOR TEJAS BECAUSE IF TEJAS IS GOOD THAN 114 FIGHTER IN WHICH GRIPEN IS ALSO THERE AND F-21 IS ALSO THERE, EITHER SINGLE ENGINE CONCEPT SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM 114 FIGHTER PURCHASE TENDER OR IT SHOULD BE SCRAPPED ALL TOGETHER AND ONLY TEJAS SHOULD BE PURCHASED BUT IAF IS HESITANT IT MEANS SOMETHING IS WRONG.

Air Force is satisfied with Tejas. It matters more than any defense experts

Why don't Abhijit do fighter jet...

I like ask Abhijit hangout

But drdo is working on DAS system since 2005 for AMCA

I think india is producing 500 600 tejas which includes lca mk1 mk2 mwf tedbf and amca.

Every body talks of ramping up the fighter fleet but do ,we have the required number of trained pilots? Admiral general Abhijit Iyer Mitra should factor that.

Abhijeet "Doron" Iyer Mitra. Lol

JF 17 has serious issue in it's structure and that's why 40% of fighters of 2 squadrons were grounded 2 months back, a lot of JF17 crashes also proves it...If it was so good why Pakistan still needs to use F16 in front line?? On the other hand since the first flight Tejas doesn't have a single crash... He was lobbying for Gripen and as he has lost his case he is angry

Once the program goes into production, military industrial eco system will be developed.

Does he knows anything about the radar cross-section, I don't think so because if he knew than he would have appreciated the small size of Tejas

The westerner designer said him about Tejas

I admire Abhijt's vast array of knowlege. But then it would necessarily lack depth. Secondly he bears no responsibility for his opinions and therefore is not taken seriously by those who do.

He is saying JF-17 is a superior plane and it's true that block 3 is superior. This issue was pointed out by Millenium. The primary reason is the design itself, higher drag, lesser take off weight and lack of a dsi. Note that gripen can supercruise with the same engine while lca can't. Also he's correct about numbers. Look at the F-35. It was full of issues initially. Later on everything was resolved when mass produce started and now it's a great plane.

LCA Tejas MK1A is a semi-stealth multi-role aircraft developed with 60% indigenous intellectual property and will progressively go up with Uttam AESA radar & HAL-Safran engine. All segments of component ecosystem is established & will mature further for LCA Tejas MK2, TEDBF & 5th generation AMCA. Capabilities of Tejas MK1A: 1) Air to Air - Detection 150Km, Targeting & BVR coverage 100Km. 2) Air to Ground - Strike 100 Km + 3) Jamming 100Km 4) Non radar detection & targetting - 50 Km + 5) Self protection same as other leading fighters Lobbying agents of Lockheed Martin or Saab are uncomfortable to see the single engine fighter market vanish in India due to domestic innovation and enginnering. Tejas MK1A & others in development will be a force multiplier with wingman drones. Never knew that anti-national elements can be so factually incorrect to undermine self reliance.

Totally agree with AIM on HAL garbage Tejas. Very informative talk.

JF17 better than Tejas? Hmm.....Not so sure about that! But on the positive side, it is a plane with a positive upcycle/ curve. So Tejas is the testbed on which India will build great fighters in the future!

Abhijeet answer questions with straight face

Nice video. Abhijit has good arguments. But I think he got a few things wrong or used the analogy incorrectly. 1. F2 of Japan is bigger because of Japan's specific needs. It wanted a very long range maritime strike aircraft. F2 carries the first AESA radar in Western world. It has a 50% more range than F16 etc. Its uses lot of composite materials in construction. 2. The mistake being made by India on Tejas is not going for multiband AESA, conformal side antennas, rear facing radar etc. These are essential to make Tejas survivable in modern two front war. X, S and L bands are essential for short to long range situational awareness. I believe these are coming in AMCA possibly. Also we don't have a solution for thermal heat signature management of exhaust. That's something to be managed from day 1. Maneuverability is not primary in today's battlefield. Electronics trumps. Tejas don't have very long range radar and missile in 1A version. This is where it will struggle. It will need Su30, Mirage, Rafale, MiG29 to back it up in all fights until Mk2 version.

I get BP listening to abhijit

Abhijit sir you should be optimistic about defense platforms design and development in India. Comparison should be done in similar category like among stealth's, among light combat aircraft's etc. Moreover all those fighter crafts you talk about, take a lots of effort to become what they are today. So give some more time to Tejas to be comparable with all these fighters.

Abhijit Iyer-Mitra is not a superior Defence Expert to the Indian Airforce /Navy Experts. Also, Tejas-MK1A eliminates any and all flaws that the Tejas has/had. All Tejas will be upgraded to Tejas-MK1A. Also, Tejas and Tejas-MK1A are small due to being a single engine fighter.

The only thing I agree with Abhijit regarding LCA is that it needs to be produced in huge amount, at least 500 units. It will help the domestic military complex to get matured. LCA most of the jets are useful when you have them in numbers. In war no side expects all its jets to do the mission 100% of the time, thanks to SAMs. Similarly 36 Rafales are not enough. You need at least 100 more of those. Now the billion dollar question is where to bring money from to build 500 LCA and 100 more aircraft? If we manage to get the money should we use to develop our own propulsion and avionics system or to get those 100 Rafales which should have been ordered 10-15 years ago, along with tech transfer agreement.

Well it's his opinion, I hope his energy remains the same when TEDBF, AMCA and tejas mk2 are in the sky.

They are not getting f16

Please provide in Hindi

The US is so advanced but still could not stop simple civilian planes to hit their most strategic buildings in their finance hub Newyork and Pentagon building.

f15ex and MKI are similar but different . We need 114 of them and another 36 Rafael just to dominate china from tibet . Also f18 for Navy We will be making tejas 2 soon . So we can aim for 500 to 600 single engine planes . Then we focus on ORCA and AMCA

श्री सरजी नमस्कार।🙏🙏

Tejas tejas tejas...... means Abhijith Rafael Rafar Rafael.... means Pappu

Too much mis information by AIM 1. The DAS which recorded rocket launch from F35 was not selected as it didn't perform to the expectations. The new DAS cannot sense anything more than 300km 2. He says tejas design is too compact, but recommends gripen which is about same dimension, weight nd engine 3. If tejas design is flawed, why not specify its flaw exactly? Tejas STR, roll rate, range payload is exactly similar to gripen. 4. Operationsl efficiency nothing to do with numbers manufactured. Thousands of mig29 were manufactured with just 30% availability rate. We have 200 sukhois with 70% availability.JF17 availability might be less thsn 40% as per some reports. 5. Even if we conclude a deal for f16 or grippen or raphael tomorrow, the delivery will start only by 2024 which is the same timeline as tejas mk2

The HAL-LCA-Tejas was getting to be a dated platform, with all the project delays and lack of accountability or ownership. But what changed it was the introduction of AESA radar and BVR firing capability. In a typical Balakot type scenario in the future, something like the Tejas will come in useful. The intention with this aircraft is not to penetrate deep into adversary airspace but to remain mostly in your own skies and make shallow ingress and egress where necessary. So call it the BSF rather than regular Indian Army of the skies. Also all the adversary jets that are able to penetrate our Ground Based-Air Defenses, can be taken care of quite well by the Tejas. The Mark 1B version will be able to go in further and the Mark 2 version should be able to cause havoc even on the Iran-Pak border, if required in terms of range and capability. Just a simple perspective of what slot does this little guy fit within IAF inventory.

Mk2 still in progress... how come 500 600

All that AMI says for Tejas flaws on one hand while on other hand pitches for 400+ Tejas!

As per him isro only makes cylinders filled with propellent.

I also think tejas need a better design as a delta wing aircraft.. Look at gripen, rafale..

I respect Abhijit Iyer-Mitra as a political analyst but as a defence analyst, his knowledge isn't updated. Gripen E has recently displayed many problems. India needs more numbers at earliest, so solution would be Rafels in limited nos and F16 in good nos. Because of high cost of Rafel; it is not possible to buy large quantities, but don't expect F16 will be any cheaper.

hope someone from HAL or ADA or some journalist with extensive knowledge of Tejas program from beginning to present & further future will respond to him.. I like Abhijit because he grill communists but he repeat same thing which may not be true in present context

We have the pathology of euphoria

The thumbnail shows a Rafael fighter. What is that? The French jet that India bought is Rafale....and Rafael is an Israeli company better known for their missiles like Derby, Python, Spice and missile defense systems Iron dome.

Just to say that LCA mk 1 A having canards is the joke of the day😂😂😂

It's no bullshit o clock with abhijit around.

Lockheed martin lobbyist😁

Boeing Super Hornet 18.

It doesnt matter how much time it takes to develop indegenous fighters. India has to become self reliant in this aspect as well. In congress rule.. there was no sincerity. Big push now for atmanirbhar Bharat and we must make use of this push to our advantage by gaining knowledge and doing R & D.

Let him design a fighter for India.

AIM is as defence lobbyist as anyone is. Choosing F16 or Gripen over Rafale is really bad idea since it would hinder the Network centric warfare and have to deal with other defence manufacturer again. The only two options are to produce more Tejas or Buy more Rafaels since the data-link integration will be easier. F16 is a very bad idea since US is trying to sell more of those 40 year old outdated airframes and JAS-Gripen is just a marketing gimmick

Abhijit s salutations are peculiar

All speculation, only way to know is in combat. Therefore, I would pursue a 2 tier vendor de-risking strategy, 50% Indian, 50% Western and maybe some Russian/ Israeli as well. As these weapon systems are proven in combat, the confidence level will increase. Another way is to have Tejas fight in some distant war, let's say export to another nation and is used against JF-17.

He is totally wrong .F2 are slightly bigger than F16 for higher maneuverability as per Japan Air Self-Defense Force requirements. In VLSI even USA is dependent on Japan for various IC components. Mitsubishi F2 was first figher to introduce AESA radar J/APG-1 in 1995. Japan is also major supplier for finished ceramic matrix composite parts for USA's sixth gen aircraft engines.

India should concentrate on building engines

F 18... is need for navy... we must get them on lease .. and they are ready to give it to us

Understand the difference between facts and opinions.