Flying the same mistaken route

If the IAF wants its fighters, it must forget foreign procurements and turn to indigenisation, as the navy has done

Nobody is certain about the origin of the aphorism: “Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”. Albert Einstein has been credited with it, as have Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin, Anonymous and An Old Chinese Proverb. Our ministry of defence has not, which is just as well given its penchant for repeating follies.

Consider how the defence ministry has gone about buying fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) over the last two decades. In essence, here is what keeps happening. The IAF needs hundreds of single-engine fighters to replace its MiG-21s