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in the eyes of chinese military fans, the domestically produced lca "glorious" fighter jet in india is a "junk" model, but it cannot be denied that the aircraft is the "glory of domestic products" and "game changer" in the eyes of indians. the indian air force is now eager to purchase the "glorious" mk1a light fighter to replace the "flying coffin" mig-21bs. what the indians never expected was that the lca, which they had worked hard to develop for more than 40 years, was strangled by american airlines on the engine when it was mass-produced.

the indian air force reportedly has high hopes for the tejas fighter and plans to purchase more than 97 mk1a aircraft, which means that about 120 engines are needed. however, hindustan aeronautics limited is currently facing supply constraints for general electric's f404 series engines. originally, hindustan aeronautics limited planned to increase the annual production of the tejas mk1a fighter to 16 between 2025 and 2026, and eventually to 24 per year. however, general electric's decision to limit the annual production of f404-ge-in20 engines to 20 units, and even 20 units cannot be guaranteed, posed a huge obstacle to the needs of the indian air force. the first aircraft of the indian air force's existing tejas mk1a order is scheduled to be delivered before march 31, 2024, but due to engine problems, the delivery time is now expected to be november 2024.

in response to the sudden bad news, indian defense minister rajnath singh is visiting the united states recently. this trip is expected to focus on the key issue of india's tejas fighter production - the delayed supply of f-404 engines. sabrina singh, deputy pentagon press secretary of the u.s. department of defense, said that the united states is looking forward to rajnath's visit and emphasized the good military relations between the two countries. this also fully proves that it is not the u.s. government that wants to block the indian army, but there are deeper reasons.

this brings up a question: why does general electric not want to make money and make things difficult for the indians? in fact, there are both objective conditions and economic benefits, and the factor of controlling india. on the one hand, the f404 engine is only used by the indian lca in the world, and the us military's f/a-18ef and sweden's gripen all use the more advanced f414 engine. if the indians had not insisted on spending more than 40 years on lca and still bought a large number of backward f404s, general electric would have stopped production lines, because the smaller the output, the worse the economic efficiency;

the second factor is that the indians are asking for trouble, that is, there is uncertainty in the development and production of the tejas mk1a. as long as the indian production plan is unclear, the us military industry is unwilling to accompany it; the third factor is real difficulties, that is, the aerospace industry is currently facing unprecedented supply chain pressure, especially the shortage of russian titanium raw materials, which has become a common problem after the outbreak of the ukrainian war. in other words, in the case of titanium shortage, ge will definitely give priority to the production of f414, f135 and other engines with a wider range of uses, which are also urgently needed by the us military, instead of thinking about taking care of the indian military industry.

there is one last and more important reason, which is that ge is sure that indians have to buy f404, and there is no choice. because if india changes the tejas mk1 to f414 engine, it will not only involve major structural improvements to the aircraft, but also significantly increase costs. since hindustan relies on foreign support to develop aircraft, they do not have the courage to change the engine for lca mk1. from this perspective, it is very difficult for china's j-20 to upgrade its engine many times, and it is really not something that ordinary countries can do. the american company also gave the indians a solution: if there is an urgent need, they can first install the second-hand engines in stock.

in general, the f404 is not backward and will not be strangled. india cannot even produce the tejas mk1 smoothly now, which fully proves the serious consequences of the lack of engine dominance in the development of aviation military industry.