According to Indian defense media reports, the Director General of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Rajalakshmi Menon, stated that India is planning to develop a sixth-generation fighter aircraft independently.

She pointed out that India has a comprehensive domestic research and manufacturing ecosystem, and with the technical experience accumulated from the Tejas fighter and the Medium Advanced Combat Aircraft (AMCA) project, it is expected to achieve the indigenous development of a sixth-generation fighter aircraft.

According to the description, this aircraft will integrate cutting-edge technologies such as stealth design, artificial intelligence, hypersonic capabilities, directed energy weapons, manned-unmanned collaborative combat systems, and the ability to control unmanned wingmen, possessing comprehensive combat functions as an air control node.

If it weren't for Indian officials stating these plans, one might have difficulty connecting this report to the real world. It would be lucky if one could refrain from laughing.

It's not that a country cannot have grand ambitions, but when such ambitions are detached from reality, they become laughable. After all, you're building a fighter jet, not writing a science fiction novel.

From the content of the article, India not only wants stealth, AI, and hypersonic capabilities, but also the ability to control drone swarms, equip directed energy weapons, and achieve autonomous mission planning and multi-aircraft coordination in the air. Moreover, everything must be entirely domestically produced, sounding like a meeting of the Iron Man crew.

The tone of the article is extremely formal and serious, but the more solemn the tone, the more absurd it sounds.

Image of the U.S. sixth-generation fighter

According to India's plan, its sixth-generation fighter will be better than those of China and the United States, because this Indian one is equipped with laser weapons. One might think that India is preparing to fight aliens.

The U.S. Air Force's NGAD program emphasizes systematization, and its main platform, the F-47, is still in closed testing phase, with specific performance details not yet publicly disclosed.

China has already displayed multiple sixth-generation fighter prototypes and has conducted several test flights, emphasizing the integration of stealth, AI control, and long endurance capabilities.

While India says: I want these, I want those, and I want to surpass everyone, while also adding the function of an airborne carrier command.

Just the mentioned characteristics alone, if achieved, would not only require sufficient national resources, but even the collaboration of software and hardware and complex systems engineering would be beyond the support of a mere paper plan.

Both China and the United States have mature stealth technology, advanced radar, adaptive cycle engines, and the deployment experience of hundreds of fifth-generation fighters. However, India has not delivered a single fifth-generation fighter yet.

At this point, declaring that India is going to build a sixth-generation fighter equipped with directed energy weapons is like someone who has never attended university vowing to win the Nobel Prize in Physics within three years. How can listeners not find it amusing?

China's sixth-generation fighter

What is more ironic is that the foundation claimed by India itself is a huge problem.

They emphasize that the Tejas project has laid the foundation for the sixth-generation fighter, but everyone knows that the Tejas project has been dragging on for over 40 years since its launch in 1983.

The originally planned delivery in the 1990s was repeatedly delayed, with the first flight postponed until 2001 and official commissioning not scheduled until 2016. To date, only about 40 units have been delivered.

The latest Mk-1A model was originally scheduled for delivery in 2024, but due to engine supply issues, it has been delayed by almost a year. The more advanced Mk-2 has been pushed back to after 2031.

India's proudly touted domestic engine has still not entered operational use, and the F404 and F414 engines used in the current Tejas are entirely imported from General Electric in the United States.

If India has struggled for decades to produce a fourth-generation fighter and still hasn't delivered it, how can it possibly complete a sixth-generation fighter independently?

China's sixth-generation fighter

Boasting is something anyone can do.

The difference is that others at least have some real achievements to show after boasting.

But India has gone beyond even basic rules, having neither a prototype to display nor an open tender scheme. Even the prototype manufacturing of AMCA is being delayed.

Yet, the media and officials still act as if they are confident, as if they will soon be flying a sixth-generation fighter.

In summary, India's so-called sixth-generation fighter project is still in the realm of science fiction.

It is not intended to build a real aircraft, but rather to create an illusion that India can do it, to gain visibility and strategic status in domestic and international propaganda.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7547630381147832851/

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