NEW DELHI, Feb 17 (Reuters) - India's opposition parties

have criticised U.S. President Donald Trump's offer to sell F-35

fighters to the country, citing their high costs, even as Russia

has discussed producing its most advanced jets locally in line

with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goals.

The offer from both U.S. and India's long-time defence

partner Russia comes at a time when the Indian Air Force's

squadrons have fallen to 31 from an approved strength of 42 and

it is seeking to acquire more jets to counter China, which is

rapidly building its military.

After meeting Modi in Washington last week, Trump said the

U.S. will increase military sales to India starting in 2025 and

will eventually provide the fifth-generation F-35 fighters made

by Lockheed Martin ( LMT ).

India's main opposition Congress party has used Trump ally

and billionaire Elon Musk's past criticism of the fighter to

target Modi's government.

"The F-35, which Elon Musk has described as 'junk', why is

Narendra Modi hell-bent on buying it?" asked a post on

Congress's official X account this weekend, saying that the

aircraft was expensive and had high operational costs.

The U.S. government estimates that an F-35 costs around $80

million.

The Indian government has not said it intends to buy the

plane and India's foreign secretary told reporters last week

that the U.S. offer was at a "proposal stage", adding that the

acquisition process had not started.

India's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a

request for comment.

The Congress post cited a November 2024 post by Musk on X in

which he shared a video of a drone swarm and captioned it:

"Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets

like the F-35".

Musk later said in another X post: "Manned fighter jets are

obsolete in the age of drones anyway".

Last week, Russia offered to make in India its

fifth-generation Sukhoi Su-57 fighter, with locally sourced

components, saying production could begin as early as this year

if India agreed.

"Russia has never shied away from transferring technology,"

said Amit Cowshish, former financial adviser for acquisitions at

the Indian defence ministry.

"The problem is not with Russia offering transfer of

technology ... we will continue to deal with Russia and buy oil

and maybe buy a couple of other things, but such a big (defence)

deal is likely to create its own difficulties vis-à-vis (the)

U.S.," Cowshish said.