Disaster in Dubai
How the IAF managed to embarrass France, the US, and itself in six months.If the Indian Air Force (IAF) was hoping the Dubai Airshow would be a reset button, they just hit self-destruct instead. Yesterday’s fatal crash of the HAL Tejas Mk-1—killing Wing Commander Naman Syal—is a tragedy. But geopolitically, it is a catastrophe.
It caps off what is arguably the worst operational year in the history of the IAF. Remember May? In the brief but brutal Indo-Pakistan air skirmish, the IAF lost four Dassault Rafales to Pakistani JF-17 Block IIIs and J-10Cs. That loss shattered the myth of French aerial invincibility.
Now, just six months later, the “indigenous” Tejas has crashed on the world stage. But here is the kicker: This time, it’s not just India’s face in the dirt. It’s America’s.
The “Frankenstein” Fighter
To understand why Washington is sweating today, you have to look under the hood of the Tejas. India markets the jet as a triumph of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” (Self-Reliant India), boasting 62-70% local content. But the critical organs? They are all imported.
1. The American Heart Attack (GE F404): The Tejas is powered by the General Electric F404-GE-IN20. This engine has been the program’s Achilles heel for decades. It has been criticized since the 1980s for being underpowered, specifically at high altitudes—a massive oversight for a country whose primary threat theater is the Himalayas.
2. The Israeli Eyes: The avionics suite is heavily reliant on the Elta EL/M-2032 radar and Litening targeting pods. The crash raises serious questions about how well these Israeli sensors talk to the Indian mission computer under high-G stress.
3. The French Ghost: The navigation systems are Sagem (French). But after the Rafale debacle in May, the presence of French tech on a crashing Indian jet just reinforces the narrative that Western tech cannot handle the subcontinent’s combat realities.
The “Double Humiliation” Strategy
The IAF has managed to achieve the impossible: It has exposed the vulnerabilities of both its major Western partners in back-to-back disasters.
In May, the world watched French Rafales fall out of the sky, shot down by cheaper Chinese-Pakistani jets. The takeaway? European 4.5-gen tech is overpriced and overrated.
In November, the world watched the US-powered Tejas crash during a sales pitch. The takeaway? American legacy engines are unreliable, and India can’t integrate them.
The strategic reality is stark: The IAF is now naked. Its high-end import (Rafale) proved vulnerable in combat. Its low-end indigenous backbone (Tejas) proved unstable in a showcase.
Why This Breaks the Pivot
The United States has spent years trying to wean India off Russian weapons. The sales pitch was simple: “Buy American (or at least Western), because Russian tech is junk.”
2025 has inverted that argument.
- Russian tech? Reliable, rugged, and readily available (Su-30 MKI).
- Western tech? The Rafales got shot down. The GE-powered Tejas crashed.
This leaves India in a bind. They cannot trust the French to win the air war, and they cannot trust the Americans/Indians to build a safe plane.
The only winner in Dubai yesterday was the Chinese delegation. They didn’t have to say a word. They just pointed at the smoke rising from the runway, and then pointed to their J-10C parked on the tarmac—the same jet that helped clear the skies in May.
