JOIN USAfter eight years, the defence ministry has cancelled the 2007 global tender to buy 126 fighter jets for the Indian Air Force, whose squadron strength nosedived in the last decade.
“The Request for Proposal (RFP) issued earlier for procurement of 126 medium multi role combat aircraft has been withdrawn,” Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar informed the Rajya Sabha in a written response on Thursday.
The defence ministry informed all the six vendors, though it was the French aircraft Rafale, made by Dassault Aviation, which was shortlisted in 2012.
The plan was to buy 18 fighters off the shelf while the rest were to be manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
After cancelling the tender to buy 126 fighters, the Narendra Modi government announced it would purchase 36 Rafale aircraft from France in a government-to-government deal.
A committee has been formed to negotiate the price.
The IAF conceived the MMRCA programme almost 15 years ago, keeping the vintage of its fleet and depleting squadron strength in mind. As the government settled for only 36 aircraft, a worried IAF reportedly conveyed its requirement to the defence minister.
To add to the service's woes, as many as 20 fighters crashed in the last three and a half years, including five Jaguars and three Sukhoi, which are relatively modern compared to the MiGs that comprise bulk of the fighter squadron.
The MiGs are on their way out. IAF would phase out three MiG-21 and MiG-27 squadrons - around 50 planes – by March 2016. All MiGs are to retire between 2014 and 2025.
Though the IAF officially claims to have 35 fighter squadrons, in 2014 it informed a Parliamentary Standing Committee that its “active” strength is only 25 squadrons. IAF's sanctioned strength is 42 squadrons.
Other fighters in the inventory are Mirage-2000, Jaguars, two squadrons of upgraded MiG-27 and Su-30 MKI. Indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft is still not a part of the operational squadrons.