It's own fifth gen fighter jet? Maybe in 2025 or 2030. Or first fifth gen fighter jet? Maybe in 2022 or 2023. However, Do India really need 5th Generation fighters?
Answer is Yes!
India need 5th generation fighter. Not urgently, but we need it. 5th generation fighters are generally costlier than 4th gen fighters. But price really don't matter when your demand is being fulfilled. You get what you pay for. A F15 is more costlier than a Su-30 because it is better and advanced. Similarly, 5th gen fighters are costlier than preceding generation because they are better and advanced.
So, let's start the deatiled answer.
India is already suffering shortage of squadrons for a two-front war. As you know we are sorrounded by our two arch rivals, Pakistan and China, this is really concerning fact for our defence. Meanwhile, Indian Air Force is anytime capable to handle Pakistan Air Force, but not People Liberation Army (China) Air Force. PLAAF is ahead in both quality and quantity terms. China operationalised their 4th generqtion indigenous fighter Chengdu J10 “Firebird”
While Indian 4th generation fighter HAL Tejas has a long way to go to acquire full combat strength (completion of delivery).
Adding more point, China is operating its own 5th generation fighter J20 but Indian 5th gen AMCA is nowhere to be seen. So, currently our industry is quite behind the Chinese. So let's talk about the 5th generation fighter requirement. India at this time operates 4.5 gen fighter Su-30MKI as first line of defence. Soon, a much more capable aircraft Rafale will join the Air Force as most potent aircraft. It is a multirole aircraft that can serve both Air Superiority and Strike missions. It is comparable with every other jet this world. It also resembles various 5th generation qualities like stealth, advanced Fly-by-wire system, etc. However, it is still a 4.5 gen fighter and can't be assumed in the category of 5th gen.
(Photoshop, calm down)
The 5th Generation fighters are new for modern era warfare. Only powerful and rich countries operate 5th generation fighters for now. Soon, the no. will extennd once we have wide variety of options. India is also a powerful country (in military terms) who require a strong force to defend the frontlines. As Pakistan and China are also not weak countries, India needs to maintain the power in the region. The MMRCA 2.0 is actually under consideration for getting hands on some good 4.5 gen fighters. F/A 18 Block III and Rafale F4 (if offered) may be the possible winners (any ome of them, or both). But the question is for 5th gen fighters, so let's stick to the topic.
What is the role of 5th gen fighters?
The role is similar to the aircrafts of previous generations. 5th gen fighters can perform dedicated air superiority missions or strike missions or both. They generally holds a low radar signature due a Radar Absorbent Material(RAM) paints that helps in dodging enemy radar waves giving almost invisible impression during missions in enemy airspace. (Note that 5th gen fighter jets are not completely invisible on radars. They can be tracked with current modern radar systems. Also, in the stealth technology, tracking time or detection time is delayed due to low RCS.) Jets are equipped with an internal bay that carries heavy ordanance (bombs) or missiles, to keep the RCS as low as possible during missions. It is widely preferred when your enemy has good radar. Low RCS may delay delay the detection/tracking by the radar.
Below are the 5th gen fighter jets actually exist in this world now:
▪Lockheed Martin F22 “Raptor”
Price per unit: $150 million
Status: Operational but production stopped
Available for sale? No!
Made in: USA
▪ Lockheed Martin F35 “Lightning II”
Price per unit: $85–115 million (depends on variant)
Status: Operational
Available for sale? Yes!
Made in: USA
▪ Sukhoi Su57 “Frazor”
Price per unit: $90 million (unconfirmed)
Status: Testing
Available for sale? Yes!
Made in: Russia
▪ Chengdu J20 “Mighty Dragon”
Price: $30–80 million
Status: Operational
Available for sale? No!
Made in: China
▪ Shenyang J31 “Gyrfalcon”
Price per unit: $55–80 million (unconfirmed)
Status: Testing
Made in: China
Available for sale? Expected…
So, the possible options for India are: America & Allies’ F35, Russian Su57 and Chinese J31. Now I know long answers may make this answer boring for you guys, so I am giving explanation of each 5th generation fighter option for India in points to make it short and exciting:
▪ Lockheed Martin F35 “Lightning II”
Pros:
▪ State-of-the-art avionics.
▪ Research & Developed with the contribution of developed countries: United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Turkey, Australia, Canada, Denmark and Norway.
▪ Active in large no.s
▪ Accepted by many contries with more countries are showing interest.
▪ Available for both Air Force and Navy.
▪ Battle proven.
Cons:
▪ Costly
▪ Service life may be as low as 2,100 hours, instead of projected service life of 8,000 hours
▪ Can't expose itself in supersonic speed for too long, it may cause breaking of RAM (Radar Absorbent Material) paint.
Supersonic speeds could cause big problems for the F-35′s stealth coating
▪ Cybersecurity testing indicated that several vulnerabilities revealed in previous years, an alarming tend in an age of cyberattacks.
Stealth F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Has Some Serious Problems: Report
▪ Crashed two times, killing the JSADF pilot in the 2nd crash
▪ Gaining ToT will be hard as it is a joint effort by various countries. We need every country to agree the terms to manufacture F-35 in a country that was not a part of development.
▪ Threat of data leak. (Yeah, that's true!)
F-35 stealth fighter caught spying on its owners
▪ Sukhoi Su57E
Pros:
▪ Cheaper than western counterpart
▪ Latest and capable 5th generation fighter from Russia
▪ Highly agile and maneuverable
▪ Dedicated Air Superiority Fighter
▪ Stealth technology tested in Syria
Cons:
▪ Spare parts management may be difficult in case if complete ToT not recieved
▪ Few Reports claim that Su57 may lose against its arch rival, F22 “Raptor” (However, Su57 has some advantages in few factors, but in overall result, F22 still dominates Su57)
Sorry! America's F-22 still more Advanced than Russia's Su-57 fighter jet
▪ Slow delivery because Sukhoi may focus on completing the delivery for Russian Air Force first instead of foreign customers.
▪ China already shown some interest in Su57, if both India and China purchase Su57, China may use the weakness of the technology against India.
▪ Shenyang J31 “Gyrfalcon”
Pros:
▪ Cheaper than western alternatives
▪ Latest addition in 5th genration category
▪ Multirole capability, intended to provide close-air support, aerial bombing and air superiority operations.
▪ A future carrier variant is expected
Cons:
▪ Copied version of F-35 with dual engines.
▪ Can't trust a Pakistani ally, India may never think of approaching China to purchase the weapons
▪ “Not-so friendly” relations with China so I am quite unsure that they will offer this jet to India.
▪ Date leak threat here too, and China may also provide defective tech. Just like the weapons they sell to other nations.
The Simple Reason the World Isn't Buying All of China's Fancy Weapons (At Least Not Yet)
Well, Indian hotshot AMCA is not added in the list because it is still under development. Also, Specs are not revealed yet so we can't count the pros and cons at this time. Hope you understand :)
So now, what will be the best 5th gen fighter for India? Pros and Cons of every fighter is given above. I am leaving this to you guys to decide the best contender for IAF 5th gen fighter requirement.
Thanks for reading. And yes, don't forget to give an upvote for my answer in case if you liked it :)