Lockheed Martin is offering F-21 to India. But in the US, there’s a different talk around this aircraft. Gen. James Holmes had said that F-21 should be converted to Unmanned Aircraft. So why should India buy this aircraft?

Certainly, you can make any airplane an unmanned platform but that doesn’t change what you are trying to do with F-21 in India. India is looking for an aircraft to increase its peace and security, the unmanned F-16 airplanes in the United States at this point are aerial targets. You can take an airplane that looks like F-21, and you can turn it into a target, but that’s not going to give you a combat capability that you are looking for and that’s not going to allow you to integrate with other platforms. It’s a different enterprise.

F-15 has also been offered to India. It has the more weapon-carrying capacity as compared to F-21. Why should India then invest in F-21?

We are looking to see what tactical airplane India is looking for to solve its multi-role fighter competition. You also have to consider you’re going to have these airplanes for a long time. The F-21 has a 12,000 hour airframe life. So, you can fly this airplane for 30-40 years. The weapon capability, strike capability and the air-to-air capability of these airplanes is very similar.