For Most Nations Developing Fighter Jets is a 'Fool's Errand'

Many countries view cutting edge military equipment as a matter of national prestige but only few nations are really able to afford to invest in building, say, an indigenous fighter jet from scratch. For others, "it's a fool's errand," defense analyst Dave Majumdar wrote for the National Interest.

"Very few nations on Earth save for the United States, Russia, France and the Chinese – to an extent – have the capability to develop a completely indigenous fighter from the ground up. Developing the subsystems independently – particularly the engines – from scratch is an endeavor that can break the bank. The French Rafale is a prime example of this phenomenon," he noted.

Even if a nation persists in developing its own fighter jet, indigenous components are often inferior in terms of price and quality to imported parts.

Take India's HAL Tejas for instance. Under development since the 1980s, the supersonic single-seat, single-jet engine, multirole light fighter is not expected to become fully combat ready for another year. In theory, it was supposed to be an indigenous aircraft but over the years its manufacturer had to replace the majority of its components with foreign ones.

However, these changes do not seem to be working either. Majumdar believes that the HAL Tejas is already obsolete.

Indian aircraft "Tejas" is perhaps the funniest and crappiest modern fighter aircraft ever made. Technically, a joke. #HAL #IAF

— Schutzstaffel (@echqeu) 7 октября 2015

HAL LCA Tejas (+20) pic.twitter.com/Exz6b0Xhdw

— Bharatiya Vayu Sena (@BharatiyaVayuSe) 13 сентября 2015

 "At the end of the day, developing an indigenous fighter would be a vanity project rather than a military necessity for the overwhelming majority of countries," he concluded.

A comparison of Dassault's Rafale and HAL's Tejas-Mark 1A. (Costs and tech transfer agreements not shown) pic.twitter.com/4zqEZESX0n

— Deepak Mohoni (@deepakmohoni) 7 октября 2015