Dear Sukhoi,
Actually, in this case, I do not think there will be any backlash on a US purchase
India is one of the few countries where the US is very popular and GWB is especially popular.
There will be no blowback there.
The thing that WILL swing the deal is technology transfer. Indians are smarting from Russia’s refusal to transfer key technologies despite India being a long time Russian/Soviet arms customer
India has finally realized (4 decades after China) that building up an industrial/military complex is the only way to be a regional superpower
They have seen how little Saudi Arabia has achieved despite having pumped in 100s of billions of dollars in arms purchases.
So, slowly (and VERY slowly.. this being India) they are now indegenising their arms industry. They are finally putting together capital class ships and submarines.
They are also building trainer jets and have a decent space program. They have a MBT (tank) that is somewhat decent.
Their Missile program is going well. They have Surface to Air, Air To Air, Ballistic missiles etc
They have also used homebuilt ground transports like trucks (Tata) etc.
So, slowly, they are building up for the inevitable war against China/Pakistan. Yes, it is inevitable. China has already begun overreaching and is poised to make a critical mistake against the US or Korea or Japan or India. Either way, China is headed for war within a decade
While US-India defense ties have improved over the past decade, the issue here is whether there is a requisite level of trust at the current juncture to award a big fighter contract (Boeing estimates final numbers may reach 400)??? The disputes over signing of monitoring agreements and sales to Pakistan will make such a deal political tricky and of course subject to opposition from the military and bureaucrats. C-17s, C-130s and sale of engines are on a different level compared to purchasing a fleet of fighters which will be a main component of your defense capabilities until approximately 2050. Since a couple of defense scams in the 80s, governments and policy makers in India have been wary of being too adventurous in their procurement plans.