SAAB's Sea Gripen constitutes a new option as the INS Vikrant's light fighter
The latest avatar of the F-15 is designed to deal with the world's most potent air threats that are emerging from China.
Delivery of a great operational machine must not get affected to settle political scores, says Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd).
The fleet landed at Al Dhafra airbase on Monday in the United Arab Emirates after flying for over seven hours from the Merignac airbase. It was the only stopover by the jets while flying from France to India.
Capable of flying at Mach 2.5 (two-and-a-half times the speed of sound), the F-15EX is the world's fastest fighter aircraft. It carries 13.5 tonnes of weapons load, more than the Rafale or the Sukhoi-30MKI.
The IAF has just 33 squadrons, 9 short of the 42 squadrons needed to tackle China and Pakistan together, says Ajai Shukla.
Lockheed Martin's offer involves transferring the world's only F-16 production line from Fort Worth, Texas, to India. Thereafter, every F-16 built, and a large share of the spare parts and sub-systems for every F-16 flying across the globe would come from India.
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