Shillam has long known that this matter is not so easy to complete, and sure enough, the United States still does not forget to promote their F-16, but this time Burns relented and listed the F-35 as an option available for sale, so compared to the previous US side was only willing to sell the F-16/F-18, today is a big step forward.

"Thank you very much Mr. Burns for your advice, which we will take seriously." Seeing that it was unlikely that new results would be achieved today, Siram ended the visit very wisely.

It was a great success to be able to gain the political support of the US side in listing the Kashmir Muslim Liberation Front as a terrorist organization, and it was a surprise that the US side was able to relax and purchase the F-35s, even though they needed to tie in the F-16s that the Indian side did not want.

Now, Siram needs to hurry back and communicate with the country accordingly, so that the domestic bigwigs can quickly discuss a new countermeasure and take advantage of the situation to promote the current good situation.

"Alright, gentlemen, let's get started," said Anthony, who was presiding over the meeting, when he saw that everyone was here. After receiving the news from Silam, the three Argentine militaries urgently convened a joint meeting of the three armed services in New Delhi, at which Defense Minister Antony, Army Chief of Staff General Singh, Air Force Chief of Staff General Wilma, and Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Kumar all attended to discuss the latest weapons purchase plan.

"I'm sure you've all received the report from Mr. Silam, and the good news is that the U.S. side is now finally relenting about selling the F-35, but it's frustrating that they want to place it with the F-16. What do the gentlemen think about the current situation? ”

In the face of Anthony's question, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Weil, took the lead and said, "Gentlemen, I think this is a good thing, you must know that so far our third-generation fighters are not even 30 squadrons, while our old rival Pakistan Air Force has 15 JF-17 squadrons, 3 F-16 squadrons and 6 J-10 squadrons of third-generation fighters, and they also have nearly 6 squadrons of MiG-21 (J-7) as a reserve supplement, and we are on the Western Front. With only less than 15 squadrons of third-generation fighters and 6 MiG-21 squadron reserves, our Air Force is significantly weaker than its opponents on the Western Front. ”

"In this case, I think we not only need to purchase fourth-generation stealth fighters as a killer feature, but it is also necessary for us to continue to purchase third-generation fighters to supplement our relatively weak air power, I personally think that if the price is right, we can greatly improve our current weakness on the Western Front battlefield by purchasing the US military's F-35 and F-16 in a 1:3 manner, and in terms of the purchase of fourth-generation fighters, we can't purchase too much, after all, the T-50 we have studied with Russia can be mass-produced, I am more bullish on the T-35 than on the F-50. ”

It seems that Weir will immediately have no opinion on the forced tie-in sales by the United States, and in the case that the Pakistani side is not equipped with fourth-generation fighters, Weir will immediately believe that the fourth-generation fighters of the United States are not very good in terms of cost performance, although the United States has not yet made an offer, but judging from the price that the United States has sold to its allies before, the price of each F-35 will definitely not be less than 150 million US dollars.

This price is enough to buy 3 F-16s, and according to what Will will know about the F-35 soon, in addition to stealth capabilities, the F-35 is almost the same as the F-16C/D, in this case, the relatively cheap F-16C/D is more affordable for the Indian side.

Judging from the current situation, because the price of the fourth-generation fighter is too high, it is unlikely that the neighboring countries will install the fourth-generation fighter on a large scale in a short period of time.

Apparently, however, others do not agree with Verma. "Mr. Verma, I don't think so," Army Chief of Staff Admiral Singh objected, "from the perspective of the future needs of the Air Force, I think the transition to the fourth generation fighter is an inevitable general trend, the fourth generation fighter has a great advantage over the third generation fighter, in this case, I think it is not possible to invest in an outdated fighter like the F-16, relatively speaking, the money invested in the F-16 is better than invested in the Apache." ”

As the military has now concentrated a large amount of investment in the T-50, in the face of high upfront R&D investment, it is impossible for the Indian side to abandon the T-50 project and devote itself to the arms of the F-35 fighter, which is destined to be unlikely for the Indian side to buy the F-35 on a large scale, let alone buy the third-generation fighter on a large scale.

However, due to the repeated postponement of the T-50 project, the mass production time was postponed from 2017 to 2018, and there is still no hope of putting it into production, and it is estimated that it will not be put into mass production until 2019-2020.

In this interregnum, the news of China's mass production of J-20 and J-21 fourth-generation fighters naturally made the Air Force urgently seek a realistic alternative, so the Indian side proposed to the United States to purchase F-35 as a transition when China began mass production of J-20 and J-21 fourth-generation fighters.

According to the Air Force's plan, before the T-50 is put into production, the Air Force needs 3-5 squadrons of F-35 fighters to offset the production and installation rate of about 20 fourth-generation fighters per year.

"We need a small but capable fourth-generation fighter to seize air supremacy, and then our superior army will solve the battle, and in this case, I think the Apache is more useful than the F-16. What's more, we do not have qualified pilots for F-16 fighters, and even if we buy F-16s, it is impossible to form combat strength in a short period of time, but we have a large number of qualified Apache pilots. It is completely possible to form combat effectiveness after arrival. "Admiral Singh is the Chief of Staff of the Army, and naturally wants to buy more Apache gunships for the Army.

There is only so much military spending every year, and if it is all spent by the Air Force, the Army will not be able to sing, so Singh is opposed to the purchase of third-generation aircraft.

The competition between the various branches of the armed forces for limited military resources has always been very fierce, and it is obvious that the US side wants to sell more fighters to the Indian side through tie-in sales in order to gain more benefits. At this point, with the exception of Verma, neither the Army nor the Navy agree to over-focus resources on the Air Force through tying.

Therefore, Defense Anthony will soon quarrel when he sees that the chiefs of staff of the three armed services.

"Well, gentlemen, on the one hand, we have to consider our needs," Anthony hurriedly came out to play a round, "but we also have to consider the proposal of the American side." ”