India Considers Scrapping P-8I, MiG-29 Fighter Jet Deal With The US & Russia To Boost ‘Make In India’ Initiative
According to the agency, the Ministry of Defense has reviewed all ongoing projects under the “Buy Global” category, which includes direct contracts with foreign arms manufacturers without the participation of the Indian military-industrial complex, in the purpose of demolishing or putting some of them on hold to increase the production of national weapons.
Contracts under review include tenders for long-range air defense systems, towed artillery pieces, vertical launch surface-to-air missiles, unmanned aerial systems, surveillance Boeing P8Is additional MiG29 fighter jets. . India signed its first contract for the purchase of eight Boeing P8 Poseidon maritime reconnaissance aircraft in January 2009.
In November 2019, the Defense Procurement Board of India approved the purchase of another ten such aircraft, five of which were been delivered to India by December 2021. In July 2020, the Defense Acquisition Council of India approved the acquisition of 21 Russian MiG29 fighters, among other crafts.
Maybe the MiG-29s weren’t really a good buy. The airframes were decades old and the procurement from Russia and upgrade was estimated to cost $992 mn / ₹ 7,418 crores. (Govt. might have considered using the money to increase LCA production, a far better proposition.)
The aircraft has two big👎🏽: the very low aircraft availability ratio and low weapons load of just 4,500 kgs. Even the single-engine Tejas Mk-1 can carry a weapons load of 3,500 kgs. Only you would consider it “versatile”.