India says NO to F-35 fighter jets from US: Is this Modi government’s clapback to Trump tariffs?
According to a new Bloomberg report, India told the United States that it was not interested in purchasing Lockheed Martin’s new F-35 fighter planes
According to a new Bloomberg report, India told the United States that it was not interested in purchasing Lockheed Martin’s new F-35 fighter planes
According to a new Bloomberg report, India told the United States that it was not interested in purchasing Lockheed Martin’s new F-35 fighter planes
According to a new Bloomberg report, India told the United States that it was not interested in purchasing Lockheed Martin’s new F-35 fighter planes
Donald Trump’s latest flat 25 per cent tariff on all Indian exports to the United States of America seems to have rubbed New Delhi the wrong way, as the world’s fourth largest economy has reportedly told US officials that India was no longer interested in buying its fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighter jets.
The US has been repeatedly lobbying global military powers such as India to lift the American defence exports. But according to a Bloomberg report, India would no longer approve any major military purchases from the US, especially after the latest Trump tariffs.
“The government is more interested in a partnership focused on jointly designing and manufacturing defence equipment domestically,” Bloomberg cited an Indian official, in line with the country’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.
Russia, however, has better-suited equipment for Indian defence capabilities, according to industry reports. Last month, Moscow is said to have offered the country, through Rostec and Sukhoi, a package deal for the new Su-57E fifth-generation stealth fighter and the Su-35M multirole aircraft.
F-35s may not be as safe as the US claims
Earlier on Wednesday (July 31), the US Naval Air Station Lemoore confirmed that an F-35C (the US Navy’s carrier version of the F-35) attached to the VFA-125 Rough Raiders went down near the installation. Officials later confirmed to agencies that the pilot was safe.
The F-35 fighter jet crashed near a central California naval installation and was engulfed in flames around 6.40 pm local time, according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office. First responders found the wreckage in a cotton field just north of Naval Air Station Lemoore.
The pilot has ejected, and the first responders found them with a parachute in a nearby field.
A month ago, reports emerged that the US Air Force cut down on the number of orders of the fifth-generation supersonic stealth F-35 fighters it intends to procure from Lockheed Martin Corp from 48 to 24. The Pentagon also reportedly cut down its order to just 12 F-35Cs from the 17 that the US Congress approved for the fiscal year.