'Getting Su-57 is as good as killing AMCA': Ex-IAF chief warns against buying foreign fifth-gen jets

Buying two squadrons of Russia's Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jets could undermine India's indigenous Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme, former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria said on Saturday.

Bhadauria was responding to a question about reports that India was considering buying two squadrons of Su-57s. He said he was not sure whether the IAF had formally initiated such a proposal, but added that he had heard there was "serious thought" being given to it.

"If you look at the larger picture, if you get Su-57, it is as good as killing AMCA. That is my view," Bhadauria said in an India Today podcast, Chakravyuh.

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The former air chief argued that buying a foreign fifth-generation fighter would divert the money, manpower and institutional focus needed to make AMCA succeed.

"Because there's no space for both. And the energy that is required for AMCA would go. The two would become four, AMCA would no longer be the critical national effort required to make it succeed, and therefore this makes all the difference," he said.

Bhadauria, who served as IAF chief from 2019 to 2021, said India would have to take a "very strong decision" if it wanted to develop its own fifth-generation fighter. "For the long term, we need to have our fifth generation."

The AMCA is India's planned indigenous fifth-generation stealth fighter programme. The programme is still under development, and a prototype of the jet is expected to roll out in 2028.

As AMCA is unlikely to enter IAF service before 2035, the government is reportedly considering buying at least two squadrons, or around 36 Su-57s.

Bhadauria said the decision could not rest only on the IAF and Defence Ministry giving up foreign options. The teams developing AMCA would also have to show visible progress.

"We expect the air force and the Ministry of Defence to say, 'don't buy, let AMCA succeed'. But the similar effort should be visible from the teams that are looking at AMCA, for example ADA, the HAL involvement," he said.

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The former air chief pointed to the LCA Mk2 programme, which precedes AMCA. Some of the systems being developed for AMCA are being tested on the LCA Mk1 and Mk2, he said, but the Mk2 has been delayed. "It should have flown last year. It still hasn't flown."

"All these things start bothering the air force," he said. While AMCA should remain a priority, he added, "those energies and those results and those movements must be visible on HAL and ADA."