"How can Prime Minister take unilateral decision": Surjewala raises questions after Trump's F-35 fighter planes announcement

New Delhi [India], February 15 : Following US President Donald Trump's announcement that his administration is paving the way to provide India with F35 stealth fighters, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala pointed out several concerns, including the lack of consultation with the Indian Air Force and defence experts and the absence of recommendations from the Defence Acquisition Council.
In a post on X, Surjewala also highlighted issues such as the F-35's operational flaws, its high cost, and the failure to secure a "transfer of technology" for domestic production.
"Prime Minister Modi is buying F-35 fighter aircraft from America, but did the Modi government consider these aspects in the national interest before taking a unilateral decision to buy F-35 aircraft at the behest of President Trump," he said.
"Does the Indian Air Force want to buy F-35 fighter aircraft in accordance with the country's defence interests? Was the Air Force's opinion taken? Why did the committee of Indian Air Force pilots and defence experts not investigate and recommend the purchase of F-35 fighter aircraft, nor did the "Defense Acquisition Council" that decides on defence purchase deals make any such recommendation? So how can the Prime Minister take a unilateral decision?" he said.
The Congress leader also claimed that the F-35 is the most expensive fighter aircraft in the world, and the cost of one aircraft is approximately 110 million Dollars, or Rs 968 crores.
"Is this good for the country's economic and strategic interests, because if 100 fighter jets are purchased, the cost will be Rs 1,00,000 lakh crore Did the American security agency "Pentagon's report" itself admit that the F35 fighter plane does not meet its operational requirements? Has the report of American security agency Pentagon admitted that F-35 has 65 operational flaws?" the Congress leader added.
Surjewala questioned further whether PM Modi studied the Pentagon's report and got the Indian Air Force to study it.
"Did the Modi government take cognizance of the fact that the F-35 fighter jets have problems such as design issues in the oxygen system, complex nature of the aircraft, malfunctioning of the head-mounted display and non-functioning of the flight control system, so did our defence experts and the Indian Air Force examine these issues before deciding to purchase the aircraft?" he said.
Sharpening his attacks further, Randeep Surjewala claimed that the US government's "Government Accountability Office" (GAO) itself stated in its report that more than half of the US Air Force's F-35 fleet is not fit to fly at any given time.
"Did the Government Accountability Office (GAO) also investigate and report that "immature and inadequate Block 4 mission system software" and "avionics issues" during the "F-35 development cycle" were causing delays in the delivery of these aircraft? Did the Modi government get these investigated by our defence experts and the Indian Air Force?" he said.
"Has the Modi government taken cognizance of the fact that the US government is not ready to give "transfer of technology" to India for the manufacture of F-35 while Russia and many other countries are ready to manufacture Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft in India and transfer the technology? Shouldn't this be an important criterion in the country's biggest defence purchase in 75 years?" the Congress leader added.
On Thursday, Trump addressing a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after their bilateral talks had said, "Starting this year, we will be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars. We are also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F35, Stealth fighters."
On being asked whether India agreed to purchase F-35s from America following Trump's announcement, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told a press briefing, "On military sales to India, there is a process by which platforms are acquired. There is, in most cases, a request for proposals that is floated. There are responses to those. They are evaluated. I don't think with regard to the acquisition of an advanced aviation platform by India, that process has started yet. So, this is currently something that's at the stage of a proposal. But I don't think the formal process in this regard has started yet."