Two Elon Musk from November 2024 surfaced online over the weekend in which he can be seen criticising the US' F-35 fighter aircraft which President Donald J Trump offered to sell India during Prime Minister Narendra D Modi's visit to the White House on Thursday.
On November 25, 2024, Musk posted on X (external link), the microblogging site he owns, that 'The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people. This made it an expensive and complex jack of all trades, master of none.
'Success was never in the set of possible outcomes. And manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed.'
A day earlier, on November 24, 2024, Musk wrote, (external link), 'Meanwhile some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35'.
Musk ended the tweet with the image of a dustbin to indicate that F-35 fighter jets need to be binned.
A report published in Forbes (external link) on November 26, 2024, said, 'Elon Musk calls F-35 Builders Idiots, Favors Drone Swarms'.
When Trump offered India the stealth F-35 fighter jets to improve its military capabilities, it was felt that Prime Minister Modi had scored a victory as the advanced fighter planes were sold only to a small group of nations like Israel, Japan and NATO members.
However, after Musk's tweets went viral, some netizens questioned the wisdom in acquiring the F-35s at a very high cost.
Ankit Sharma, tagging Elon Musk's old tweet, wrote (external link), 'Dear respected @PMOIndia @narendramodi why to buy this false F-35 when we can ask for SU-57*. It's not recommended by even @elonmusk also.'
The SU-57 is developed by Russia's Sukhoi and is a fifth generation stealth multirole fighter aircraft.
Strategic thinker Brahma Chellaney (external link) posted on X, 'Trump said the US would ultimately offer Indian the F-35. But the carrot Trump dangled has been portrayed as an actual offer in the Indian media, with some salivating at the prospect of F-35 acquisition.
'As the Ukraine war has shown, missiles and drones, not fighter-jets, are now pivotal to effective air power. The F-35s costs a staggering $110 million per unit or more, making it a prohibitively expensive platform for a poor country like India.
'India needs to focus more on its domestic missile and drone programs through greater spending and more ambitious goals.'
At the press conference with Prime Minister Modi on Thursday night, Trump stated, '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 F-35 stealth fighters.'
He did not provide a timeline as to when the stealth fighters would be delivered to India.
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