But I also didn't say anything about that at all.
This is a thread about
(1) India quitting Russia's bad jet fighter program.
(2) Why that jet fighter is bad.
(3) Why doing advanced technology on the cheap with technology as advanced as the F-35 / F-22 doesn't isn't a thing. This is particularly interesting because this is not the only "F-22 peer" program around the world that's spectacularly failed. It calls into questions countries even trying (from a policy/funding standpoint).
(4) Why "if you're in a race, you have to keep running".
Nothing to do with 'America fuck yeah" or anything because of that.
I mean, here's a list of nominal 5th Generation Fighters:
F-22 Raptor (USA)
F-35 Lightning II (USA)
J-20 (China)
J-31 (China)
Su-57 (Russia)
HAL FGFA (India-Russia Su-57 improved variant)
HAL AMCA (India)
X-2 / F-3 (Japan)
TAI TFX (Turkey)
Saab 2020 (Sweden)
KF-X (South Korea)
-> Most of these have have been talked about for a decade or two, at the very least (and the list is missing some).
-> Only the bolded ones actually exist in a flyable form despite years of talk and money.
-> Only the italicized ones exist in number exceeding a handful of samples.
The failure of the Su-57 and the FGFA program illustrates that doing 5th generation fighter technology on the cheap is REALLY bad policy, and doesn't produce any kind of meaningful results despite still considerable investment... investment that isn't nearly enough to make a true 5th generation fighter. Because of the list above, only the F-22 and more advanced F-35 really qualify.
And then there is the industrial base angle for Russia. They won't be able to export Su-27 variants forever. What happens when the Chinese J-31 eats their market share and they can't defend it with the Su-57? That's an existential problem for Russia's defense industry, which depends on exports to a degree the US, European and Chinese industries do not.