[nuncEtedben]

India has taken forever (like two decades) to decide how it wants to replace its aging and almost obsolete Soviet-era Mig-21 fighter plane fleet. It got vendor interest from Boeing for the F/A-18 as well as from Lokheed Martin for the F-16, latest block design. Also in the running were Mig-35 from Russia, Swedish SAAB Gripen, and two other European fighters, French Rafale and the joint collaboration Eurofighter Typhoon.

The 126 (plus option for dozens more) fighters on order would amount to more than $10 billion and would keep the awardees manufacturing lines humming for five years easily, plus follow-on contracts for future maintenance and midlife upgrades for the planes.

So it's a strategic buy for India's armed forces. And I had long been thinking that in the end, it's going to be a toss-up between the American options and the old pal Russians and their cheap wares (that do last long, and Russians give the top technology available to them, don't hold back especially not to India...they hold back to China because China reverse engineers and domestically produces every single item after ordering a small number of originals).

Instead, the stupidity that is Indian leftist (Marxist-driven) current Central government, it has dropped all other options and left the two from Europe still standing...

A well-written piece on international strategy and what a dumb move this is...it'll impact U.S.-India relations for sure, and in a bad way I'm afraid. The U.S. ambassador to India has already resigned!

http://acorn.nationalinterest.in/201...nate-people-3/