Looking at the news and there is all the sudden there is a lot out there about India and the F-35.
One word: desperation. As in desperation of the U.S. government and lockmart (one in the same) to keep the F-35 program alive by any means necessary.
Now several words. There are a variety of problems with this idea.
India has not signed a nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Is it such a good idea to give them what Washington thinks is our most advanced technology--even if it is not?
Then there is the issue of national sovereignty for India. U.S. sales of fighter aircraft have other strings attached as Turkey or Pakistan would tell you. F-16s for these customers have devices in them that limit what they can do when located in certain geographic locations.
Then you have observe what happend to Indonesia, Thailand and Pakistan. When they did something that was not in the interest of the U.S. they got logistics support for fighter aircraft cut off.
Object lesson.
With that, look at this deception of statements from a U.S. official on Indian TV back in 2007. It was an effort of desperation to get India to close out the fighter competition.
The message; F-16 sales to India lead directly to F-35 involvement. Where, the price of the F-35 is that of an F-16. I'm not even confident the guy is sober.
We all know how that theory of price comparison turned out.
