With fighter jets on display at air show, the U.S. makes a stealth pitch to India
CBSN
When two Lockheed Martin F-35s flown by the United States Air Force roared through Indian skies for the first time this week at an international air show in southern India, spectators were awestruck by the fighter jet's design and aerobatics.
The fifth-generation fighter jet has stealth, supersonic, and multi-role capabilities - making it the most lethal in the world. And the presence of the aircraft — an F-35A Joint Strike Fighter from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and an F35-A Lightning II from the 354th Fighter Wing at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, along with F-16s, Super Hornets and B-1B bombers — at the weeklong aviation exhibition in Bengaluru fueled speculation whether the American show of strength was a sign of a growing strategic relationship between the two countries or an attempt by Washington to woo New Delhi away from its biggest military supplier and decades-old friend, Russia.
"Frankly, we have seen such high-level American participation earlier too … but geopolitically, things are a little different. China is a little more aggressive, so this is significant," Manmohan Bahadur, a retired air vice marshal of the Indian Air Force, told CBS News.
