Dubbed as the mother of all defence deal, the mega purchase decision is hanging in balance for quite some time. According to the top Indian Air Force officials, there are no hitches left at the IAF headquarters level and the ball is now in the government's court.
Within three months, the Indian Air Force may issue the long-awaited global tender for procuring 126 multi-role fighter aircraft in a mega defence deal, valued at close to $ 9 billion (Rs 370 billion).
“Very soon it (issuing of request for proposal) is coming finally. The outer limit is two to three months,” Defence Minister A K Antony told reporters after a Bharat Electronics Ltd’s function here on Saturday.
Dubbed as the mother of all defence deal, the mega purchase decision is hanging in balance for quite some time. According to the top Indian Air Force officials, there are no hitches left at the IAF headquarters level and the ball is now in the government’s court.
Five top aviation players — Lockheed Martin and Boeing (both from the USA), Grippen (Sweden) Dassault (France) and Mikoyan Bureau (Russia) — are in the fray to grab the order for these medium-range combat aircraft. The fighters on offer are US F-16 and F/A-18 Super Hornet, the Swedish JAS-39 Grippen, the French Rafale, and Mig-29 OVT.
Lack of progress on the deal has put the IAF in a precarious position as the squadron strength is dwindling constantly. Currently, the squadron strength has come to 29 as against the sanctioned strength of 39.5 squadrons and the ideal situation of having 45 squadrons to retain the strategic edge in the sub-continent.
IAF desperately needs new aircraft to ramp up its depleting fleet consisting largely of vintage MiG-21 and MiG-27 aircraft. Though some of the aircraft underwent through a mid-life upgradation programme, it is not a happy situation for the IAF.
To add to the service’s woes, the plan of acquiring 40 Sukhoi-30 fighters is in a limbo with the Russians asking for additional money than what had been decided earlier.
The indigenously developed light combat aircraft (LCA) that was to replace the ageing MiG-21 jets is also suffering from huge cost and time overruns and is unlikely to be inducted in the service before 2012. So far, the IAF has placed order for only one squadron of LCA.
Reportedly, one of the reasons for the delay is the new defence procurement policy, according to which the winning vendor has to reinvest 30 per cent of the contract value in India as offset.
Because of the prolonged delay, the defence ministry is now toying with the idea of directly issuing a request for quotation (RFQ) rather than RFP.
However, even after issuing the RFP or RFQ, it will take years for price negotiations and closing the deal.
