Trump Offers to Export F-35 Stealth Fighters to India: Why Delhi Won’t Be Interested

U.S. President Donald Trump has stated that his country will offer F-35 fighter aircraft to India as part of broader efforts to increase arms exports to the country. “We’ll be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars. We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” the president stated. These comments were made as Trump received India Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House. India has not indicated an interest in the F-35 or in procuring American fighter aircraft in the past, with the sale of F-35s expected to be non viable for political reasons. The extensive controls the United States imposes on how its fighters are utilised provide a key obstacle to the sale of even lower end aircraft such as the F-16, with controls being even more stringent for the F-35 and exploiting the extreme centralisation of its ALIS and ODIN logistics systems. Washington’s history of seeking to pressure Delhi on geopolitical issues, including under the previous Trump administration with threats to impose economic sanctions, has further worsened prospects for a break though in the export of equipment and sensitive as fighter aircraft.

India and Russia are reported to currently be holding talks on the sale of Russian Su-57 fifth generation fighters, with India widely reported to be interested in producing the aircraft under license. This would follow a long history of India building Soviet and Russian fighters domestically, with President Trump’s offer to provide the F-35 speculated to have represented part of an effort to derail talks on the Su-57 by presenting an alternative. The F-35 and Su-57 are currently the only fifth generation fighters in production outside China, and are expected to remain so well into the 2030s. Regarding the difficulties the United States will have in pitching the F-35, former air marshal in the Indian Air Force Anil Chopra recently stated that Delhi “remains cautious about the U.S. tendency to exert pressure and abandon allies when its own interests diverge with theirs, as well as potential U.S. expectations for India to distance itself from Russia.” He stressed that “choosing a reliable partner country that won’t impose undue pressure is crucial,” while strongly implying that ruled out the United States and the F-35, and thus left the Su-57 as the country’s only option to acquire a fifth generation fighter within the next decade.

The F-35’s armaments, avionics and stealth capabilities are considered to be more sophisticated than those of the Su-57, but the Russian fighter was designed to be much easier to keep at high availability rates, has approximately double the range, can cruise at over double the speed, carries a much larger radar and missile payload, and has a far superior flight performance at all speeds. The Su-57 has the further advantage of having been put through almost three years of testing in high intensity combat environments in the Ukrainian theatre, including being used for air defence suppression, air to air combat, and operations in heavily defended enemy airspace, as well as to launch precision strikes. The long history of technology sharing and joint programs between Russia and India, and the significant tensions that have often emerged between Delhi and Washington, place Russia in a much stronger position to pitch its fighter. Procurement of the F-35 is expected to otherwise grant the United States tremendous leverage over India through control of source codes and parts supplies among other means. The United States is also considered far less likely to offer comparable options for joint manufacturing and technology transfers to Russia, which recently signed an unprecedented agreement to allow India to jointly manufacture AL-31 engines for the more than 220 Su-30MKI fighters it previously jointly produced under license.