As the world reels from the surprise USA revelation of its 6th Generation aircraft F47 that was earlier called NGAD, it has now become impossible for India to overlook this important and strategic development. As of now the Indian Air Force (IAF) is happy flying 3rd Gen, 4th Gen, and 4.5++ Gen fighters like MiG-29/29K, Rafale/Rafale-M, Su-30MKI, Jaguar, and Mirage-2000.
Most of these will still keep flying till 2035 and 2040 when the world is already looking forward to the 6th Gen fighter like NGAD/F47 (USA), Tempest (UK), and the secretive MiG-41 (Russia) and these will be launched around the same time as 2035 to 2040.
IAF as yet is still trying to get its hands on a 5th Gen fighter. Its home-grown effort the AMCA is reportedly going to be a 5.5 Gen fighter platform.In all likelihood, the first AMCA-TD will see the light of the day only by 2035, a time when the world would have probably already witnessed the launch and induction of 6th Gen fighters like the NGAD (USA), and Tempest (UK). The rather uncertain (not confirmed of its development by Russian defence officials) MiG-41 (Russia) is more likely to emerge by 2040. IAF is aware it’s really falling behind in the race, so it had attempted to get hands-on Su-57 (Russia) customized as FGFA, but that plan didn’t materialise.
IAF must realise that it has already missed the 5th Gen fighter bus. As such, it must now focus on acquiring a 6th Gen fighter in an accelerated manner. Another speculation is rife amongst defence analysts is that India should acquire the schematics of YF-23 from Northrop Grumman with a cost from Northrop Grumman and utilise it as a base page to develop its 6th Gen fighter.As far as AMCA is concerned, India should develop as many Technological Demonstrators to iron out the Nitty-gritty of these jets. It will help the engineers develop an idea as to how to develop an indigenous 6th Gen fighter. As a precedence IAF can acquire fully loaded 3 squadrons of Su-57 stealth jets and gain as much as experience possible of flying a 5th Gen jet. This will allow them to skip the 5th Gen fighter rat race and optimise its resources, adequately allocate its budget and standardise its aircraft fleet.
While plans are in place to increase the sanctioned full IAF aircraft squadron strength to 60 by 2047, up from current 49. But problem is how to shore up the numbers. Note that 60 squadrons or 21 X 60 = 1,260 fighter jets are still 11 more than the previously approved 49 squadrons in 1950s (original requirement put up by IAF was for 54 squadrons). Effectively IAF reached 47.5 squadrons in mid-1980s (the maximum ever), and has since the mid-2000s been war gaming for a 2-front war with a minimum of 42 squadrons due to falling fighter jet numbers.
