Tejas is a shitty aircraft but it us our shitty aircraft which means we have full control to upgrade and transform....Pahadi Chuha will never understand how badly french are ripping us off in Rafael deal

Now, LR-LACM is tested on the new launcher which was spotted on L&T poster.

When is mk2 a single engine unable to do heavy lifting plane coming. You would already have 30 sq. Of 4th gen planes before mk2 Even starts production , why require mk2 . Focus should be on AMCA and future 6th gen. If you focus now you will get it after2035. Or remove Mk1a .

Leave Mk2 , he have suggested that AMCA should be ordered in limited number

Because the Rafale has already entered service with the Indian Air Force. An order has also been placed for the Indian Navy. The combined value of this - being paid for by tax payers is Rs.1,23,000 cr. Infra has been set up, the IAF is deeply invested in the jet. The first new Indian Navy Rafales start coming in by mid 2028. If India were to sign the deal for 114 more Rafales soon, you can expect deliveries to also begin by 2028-29. The first prototype of the Tejas Mk 2 has still not been rolled out. Even if it is rolled out tomorrow, it will not complete flight tests and start entering squadron service before 2035 - that's a seriously optimistic date - its essentially a brand new fighter. The question to be asked is whether India needs a brand new non-stealth 4th generation jet entering service in 2035 - i.e 30 years after the USAF first started indicating F-22s and at a time when the nature of airwarfare has changed completely. This isn't remotely to suggest that the Tejas Mk-2 will be a bad platform but the evolution of air warfare, the heavy dependence on stealth and the emergence of 6th generation platforms will render the Tejas Mk-2 significantly dated by the 2030s - obsolete from a basic design standpoint. That also goes for other existing IAF jets but since one isn't going to discard the Su-30 fleet not the recently acquired Rafale fleet, which has decades of operational life left, it makes it incumbent upon us, as a nation to make hard choices. The AMCA is India's make or break moment. I talk about FCAS - that's a futuristic requirement but it's AMCA that just has to be a gamechanger for the IAF first. And there are many skeptics who doubt that that will happen. In all this, at a time when the Chinese are fielding some of the most radical designs we have seen and already have 300 odd 5th generation J-20s in service, should we blindly endorse the continued induction of 100 plus Tejas Mk-2s at more than Rs.75,000 cr which will start entering service in meaningful numbers only a decade from now?

Because the Rafale has already entered service with the Indian Air Force. An order has also been placed for the Indian Navy. The combined value of this - being paid for by tax payers is Rs.1,23,000 cr. Infra has been set up, the IAF is deeply invested in the jet. The first new Indian Navy Rafales start coming in by mid 2028. If India were to sign the deal for 114 more Rafales soon, you can expect deliveries to also begin by 2028-29. The first prototype of the Tejas Mk 2 has still not been rolled out. Even if it is rolled out tomorrow, it will not complete flight tests and start entering squadron service before 2035 - that's a seriously optimistic date - its essentially a brand new fighter. The question to be asked is whether India needs a brand new non-stealth 4th generation jet entering service in 2035 - i.e 30 years after the USAF first started indicating F-22s and at a time when the nature of airwarfare has changed completely. This isn't remotely to suggest that the Tejas Mk-2 will be a bad platform but the evolution of air warfare, the heavy dependence on stealth and the emergence of 6th generation platforms will render the Tejas Mk-2 significantly dated by the 2030s - obsolete from a basic design standpoint. That also goes for other existing IAF jets but since one isn't going to discard the Su-30 fleet not the recently acquired Rafale fleet, which has decades of operational life left, it makes it incumbent upon us, as a nation to make hard choices. The AMCA is India's make or break moment. I talk about FCAS - that's a futuristic requirement but it's AMCA that just has to be a gamechanger for the IAF first. And there are many skeptics who doubt that that will happen. In all this, at a time when the Chinese are fielding some of the most radical designs we have seen and already have 300 odd 5th generation J-20s in service, should we blindly endorse the continued induction of 100 plus Tejas Mk-2s at more than Rs.75,000 cr which will start entering service in meaningful numbers only a decade from now?

Because the Rafale has already entered service with the Indian Air Force. An order has also been placed for the Indian Navy. The combined value of this - being paid for by tax payers is Rs.1,23,000 cr. Infra has been set up, the IAF is deeply invested in the jet. The first new Indian Navy Rafales start coming in by mid 2028. If India were to sign the deal for 114 more Rafales soon, you can expect deliveries to also begin by 2028-29. The first prototype of the Tejas Mk 2 has still not been rolled out. Even if it is rolled out tomorrow, it will not complete flight tests and start entering squadron service before 2035 - that's a seriously optimistic date - its essentially a brand new fighter. The question to be asked is whether India needs a brand new non-stealth 4th generation jet entering service in 2035 - i.e 30 years after the USAF first started indicating F-22s and at a time when the nature of airwarfare has changed completely. This isn't remotely to suggest that the Tejas Mk-2 will be a bad platform but the evolution of air warfare, the heavy dependence on stealth and the emergence of 6th generation platforms will render the Tejas Mk-2 significantly dated by the 2030s - obsolete from a basic design standpoint. That also goes for other existing IAF jets but since one isn't going to discard the Su-30 fleet not the recently acquired Rafale fleet, which has decades of operational life left, it makes it incumbent upon us, as a nation to make hard choices. The AMCA is India's make or break moment. I talk about FCAS - that's a futuristic requirement but it's AMCA that just has to be a gamechanger for the IAF first. And there are many skeptics who doubt that that will happen. In all this, at a time when the Chinese are fielding some of the most radical designs we have seen and already have 300 odd 5th generation J-20s in service, should we blindly endorse the continued induction of 100 plus Tejas Mk-2s at more than Rs.75,000 cr which will start entering service in meaningful numbers only a decade from now?

DRDO successfully conducted the flight-test of the indigenously developed Long Range Land Attack Cruise Missile (LRLACM) from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha. The missile achieved all mission objectives, validating critical technologies and demonstrating India’s growing long-range precision strike capability. Developed with its all sub-systems by #DRDO with strong participation from Indian industry, the successful test is another major step towards #AatmanirbharBharat and a stronger national defence ecosystem.

This is a great analysis, @VishnuNDTV sir. A country cannot base its national security on assumptions or optimism alone. The only sensible path is to push the AMCA program with Indian private sector, at scale and with urgency, while creating a robust domestic aerospace ecosystem and resilient supply chain. Until then, we remain heavily dependent on geopolitics and to some extent, the mercy of fate.