\u201cF-35, which Elon Musk has described as \u2018junk\u2019, why is Narendra Modi hell-bent on buying it?\u201d asks Congress
\nNew Delhi
\nIndia\u2019s opposition parties have criticised US President Donald Trump\u2019s offer to sell F-35 fighters to the country, citing their high costs, even as Russia has discussed producing its most advanced jets locally in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s goals.
\nThe offer from both US and India\u2019s long-time defence partner Russia comes at a time when the Indian Air Force\u2019s squadrons have fallen to 31 from an approved strength of 42 and it is seeking to acquire more jets to counter China, which is rapidly building its military.
\nAfter meeting Modi in Washington last week, Trump said the US will increase military sales to India starting in 2025 and will eventually provide the fifth-generation F-35 fighters made by Lockheed Martin LMT.N.
\nIndia\u2019s main opposition Congress party has used Trump ally and billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s past criticism of the fighter to target Modi\u2019s government.
\n\u201cThe F-35, which Elon Musk has described as \u2018junk\u2019, why is Narendra Modi hell-bent on buying it?\u201d asked a post on Congress\u2019s official X account this weekend, saying that the aircraft was expensive and had high operational costs.
\nThe US government estimates that an F-35 costs around $80 million.
\nThe Indian government has not said it intends to buy the plane and India\u2019s foreign secretary told reporters last week that the US offer was at a \u201cproposal stage\u201d, adding that the acquisition process had not started.
\nIndia\u2019s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
\nThe Congress post cited a November 2024 post by Musk on X in which he shared a video of a drone swarm and captioned it: \u201cMeanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35\u201d.
\nMusk later said in another X post: \u201cManned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway\u201d.
\nLast week, Russia offered to make in India its fifth-generation Sukhoi Su-57 fighter, with locally sourced components, saying production could begin as early as this year if India agreed.
\n\u201cRussia has never shied away from transferring technology,\u201d said Amit Cowshish, former financial adviser for acquisitions at the Indian defence ministry.
\n\u201cThe problem is not with Russia offering transfer of technology … we will continue to deal with Russia and buy oil and maybe buy a couple of other things, but such a big (defence) deal is likely to create its own difficulties vis-\u00e0-vis (the) US,\u201d Cowshish said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cF-35, which Elon Musk has described as \u2018junk\u2019, why is Narendra Modi hell-bent on buying it?\u201d asks Congress New Delhi India\u2019s opposition parties have criticised US President Donald Trump\u2019s offer to sell F-35 fighters to the country, citing their high costs, even as Russia has discussed producing its most advanced jets locally in line with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-462210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n