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When India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan speaks of India pursuing a sixth-generation fighter, as he did recently, it is hard to ignore the strategic dissonance. The ambition is striking — but so is the gap between aspiration and capability.

At a time when India is nowhere near fielding a fifth-generation platform and continues to grapple with the long-delayed maturation of the indigenous Tejas Mk1/1A/2 light combat aircraft programme, all and any talk of leapfrogging into a sixth-generation ecosystem is little more than fanciful ambition detached from technological reality and existing capability.

The CDS had recently informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence that the Indian Air Force (IAF) was actively evaluating participation in emerging sixth generation fighter programmes and could align with one of two competing global efforts: the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), led by the UK, Italy, and Japan, or the rival Franco-German Future Combat Air System (FCAS).

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

Gen Chauhan’s remarks indicate that while India remains committed to locally developing the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), the complexity, cost and timelines associated with sixth-generation technologies – from artificial intelligence (AI), advanced propulsion and unmanned-unmanned teaming – make international collaboration increasingly unavoidable.

He is believed to have emphasised that any such decision would be guided by strategic autonomy, access to technology and long-term industrial benefits, rather than mere procurement. At the same time, his comments implicitly acknowledged the limits of India’s........

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