F-35C fighters from the U.S. Marine Corps’ VMFA 314 squadron aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln conducted multiple strikes on Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen. The F-35C stealth fighter model has longer, folding wings and, like the F/A-18, is designed to be launched from the catapults of aircraft carriers, allowing it to carry heavier payloads than the F-35B.
Saurabh Joshi explains why the Indian Navy’s fighter contest is expected to be cut short, with the aircraft being selected by default in a walkover next month.
Saurabh Joshi analyses the significance of the agreement to produce GE F414 fighter aircraft engines in India and its far-reaching consequences for India’s military aviation industry, indigenous fighter capability and defence ties with the U.S.
Boeing has announced the end of production for the U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters in 2025. With no scope for early Rafale M deliveries, here’s how this could become an opportunity for the Indian Navy to get all 26 of its new Multi-Role Carrier-Borne Fighters by the end of 2026.
The acquisition of the S-400, differing points of view on the war in Ukraine, eye-watering costs, a domestic 5th gen fighter program and never having operated any U.S. fighter aircraft are some of the reasons why India can’t and shouldn’t consider the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.
Leading U.S. defence companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, GE Aerospace, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc, Pratt & Whitney, and TW Metals, LLC will be exhibiting at the show.
In the first edition of a new weekly video series, StratPost editor Saurabh Joshi examines whether India could acquire its first-ever U.S.-built fighter aircraft, with the navy considering the F/A-18 Super Hornet for its next carrier fighter.
While the F/A-18 Super Hornet is being offered for the Indian Navy’s carrier-borne fighter jet requirement, it is also a candidate, along with the F-15, for Boeing’s offer for the Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter requirement.
A quiet, hybrid process is underway to buy a reduced number of new fighters for the Indian Navy’s aircraft carriers. But remarkably, some of the fighters being considered can’t operate from aircraft carriers.
The concept is a pilotless jet aircraft with almost the size and range of a conventional fighter that can fly autonomously and deploy a variety of sensors carried in a swappable, modular nose.
Boeing confirmed last week that it would offer Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFTs) on the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter to international customers even though the U.S. Navy has declined the option for their order of the aircraft.
The IAF’s new contest for fighter aircraft is expected to get underway over the next few months. But there remain a number of significant outstanding problems ahead, that could delay or derail the process.
Part III of this analysis examines the implications of the single most interesting data point to emerge from the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. This date has never been mentioned in earlier media reports, and what is almost startlingly significant is not only what transpired on this date, but the fact of the date, itself.
Part II of this analysis examines how the defence ministry’s Contract Negotiation Committee (CNC) interpreted an inflated cost analysis of the Eurofighter bid and undervalued the cost of the Rafale bid, five times.
Part I of this three-part analysis is a contextual reading of the February 2019 CAG report and outlines how the IAF’s MMRCA contest was fixed to get the Rafale back into the contest after it was rejected, three times, and how the threats to a Rafale win were removed.
