Thread by @cvkrishnan

Anthropologically clueless

Anthropological ignorance

Anthropological impossibility.

Some of his arguments

1. We got “AESA Ga As TRM technology” when we got the Phalcon
No we did not get.

2. Why did you want a French radar on the Rafale?
Right. Because the Uttam is at the same level of maturity as the RBE2 AA!! Development cycles be damned.

3. India is a pre-industrial nation

much as I do believe that India is yet to have a 21st century industrial base, to call it a pre-industrial nation incapable of precision engineering at all, is a hyperbole that comes out of a deep hatred for something else than actual reality.

4. Netra is a completely non-functional radar.
The IAF very much disagrees. If Netras had labour laws, they would be demanding overtime pay. It is even more apparent when today we are only looking for a foreign platform to put our desi radar in than a COTS product as earlier.

5. India doesn’t have the industrial base to build a 4th Gen aircraft.

That’s exactly what we are doing with the LCA Tejas ecosystem. Didn’t you see a Work in Progress Sign? Or do you always need a “Made in America” sign to believe the quality.

6. Even for ships why did you go for MF-STAR if you had a desi radar?

Dei, long lead times, development cycles, stage of maturity? These are nothing for you? Do you think technology comes with the snap of a finger?

7. We are anthropologically incapable of producing 4th Gen fighter jets?

What he means to say is we missed the Industry 2.0 and Industry 3.0. Yes we are late to the station but no we did not miss the train. We are playing catch-up but it is nowhere close to being impossible.

What i do take out of AIM’s understanding of technology is that it is very superficial and full of gross approximations with little to no nuances. Main reason being he is technologically clueless and doesn’t get how technology development works.

For example. His repeated insinuation is that all AESA technologies are same. No. They are not. There are multiple strands, multiple use cases, multiple development technologies that come under AESA. You can make one doesn’t mean you know to make them all.

I’m one of the harshest critics of our tech base and tech maturity but honestly I’d never take the statement “anthropologically impossible to produce 4th Gen aircraft”. We are doing it late & slow but we are not out of the race. Enormous amount of technological illiteracy there.

What I do agree with him on is with not using ISRO as a benchmark. The breadth and depth of tech expertise needed for developing today’s defence platforms is orders of magnitude more than needed to send a rocket to Mars or do basic experiments on moon surface.

Overall what AIM presumes is that Europe, Russia and US are able to develop fighter aircraft solely because they were part of Industry 2.0 and 3.0. That ignores the elephant in the room like technology denial regimes, Chinese method of acquiring technologies to leap frog etc.

At last no don’t flatter yourself. You are not a Lockheed Martin agent.

You are just a defence technology illiterate who makes a choice of product based on the branding and packaging.