{"id":64493,"date":"2026-08-13T03:09:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T03:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/64493\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T03:09:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T03:09:17","slug":"why-india-is-eyeing-frances-next-generation-combat-aircraft-tech-amid-jet-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/64493\/","title":{"rendered":"Why India is eyeing France\u2019s next-generation combat aircraft tech amid jet shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/india?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">India<\/a> is looking to join France\u2019s sixth-generation fighter programme in a long-term bid to secure a role in the next era of air warfare, from advanced aircraft technology to the industrial work of designing and building future combat systems.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But analysts said the move, while potentially a major step in India\u2019s defence partnership with France, would do little to ease the country\u2019s immediate shortage of combat jets.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The defence ministry told Indian lawmakers last week that it had \u201cinitiated efforts\u201d to join the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), a French-led programme aimed at developing the next generation of combat aircraft and connected air warfare systems.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Sixth-generation systems are expected to pair piloted fighter jets with drones, sensors and data networks, allowing aircraft to share information and coordinate strikes across the battlefield.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Indian Air Force displays the Vajraang formation, comprising six Rafale fighter jets, during Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on January 26. Photo: EPA\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/03220805-94cd-47f7-940b-a0f3faf76d8c_396b52bf.jpg\" title=\"The Indian Air Force displays the Vajraang formation, comprising six Rafale fighter jets, during Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on January 26. Photo: EPA\"\/>The Indian Air Force displays the Vajraang formation, comprising six Rafale fighter jets, during Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on January 26. Photo: EPAAntoine Levesques, senior fellow for South and Central Asian defence at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said FCAS was a logical \u201cnext step and step-change\u201d for France-India strategic cooperation, but not a fix for the Indian Air Force\u2019s (IAF) current <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/politics\/article\/3360123\/why-india-turning-retired-jets-sustain-its-depleted-air-force?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">shortage<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India is looking to join France\u2019s sixth-generation fighter programme in a long-term bid to secure a role in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[39173,39897,39898,1165,4664,2244,5,65,39896,747,17273,2086,39895,372,230],"class_list":["post-64493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-advanced-medium-combat-aircraft","tag-antoine-levesques","tag-atul-kumar","tag-china","tag-dassault","tag-fcas","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-global-combat-air-programme","tag-india","tag-indian-air-force","tag-pakistan","tag-ravi-gopal-krishana-kapoor","tag-russia","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}