JOIN USIndia shortlists 2 fighters in mega deal
“Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon have been shortlisted, based on technical evaluation. They have been requested to extend their financial bids for another year. The official letters to the vendors are being dispatched,” defence ministry officials told Deccan Herald on Wednesday.
This would be India's biggest defence deal in which the country plans to purchase 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA).
Over the next two decades, the MMRCA would be one of the mainstay fighters for the Indian Air Force.
Though the bid was for 126 fighters, India in all probability will purchase over 200 fighters. Additional fighters will be purchased after evaluating the performance of the first lot in which 18 will be manufactured by the winning bidder while the rest would be produced at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd in Bangalore.
The selected fighter will help India retain its air superiority – India's battle strategy since the 1971 war – over Pakistan and China.
The government's shortlist comes hours before the expiry of sealed commercial bids for six competitors.
With Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon winning the first round of the competition, the other four commercial bids will die out naturally.
The six fighters in the fray were American F/A-18 Super Hornet (Boeing) and F-16IN Super Viper by Lockheed Martin; Russian MiG-35; French Rafale (Dassault Aviation), Eurofighter Typhoon (manufactured by an European consortium) and Swedish Gripen NG (Saab). All of them underwent extensive trials under strict IAF supervision between the summer of 2009 and summer of 2010 in Bangalore, Jaisalmer and Leh. The trials were conducted on 643 test points. The IAF report was submitted to the defence ministry in July 2010.
The original air staff qualitative requirement was prepared in 2007, according to which the trials were to be conducted on 660 test points. The number was reduced later to 643. With the technical decision made, the ministry will now initiate commercial negotiations in which politics would definitely be a factor, said an IAF officer.
Even before the price negotiation, a diplomatic war may ensue with the losers – US, Russia and Sweden – exerting pressure and trying to find fault with the selection process.India, on its part, will claim that the unparalleled selection process – the world's biggest open tender selection of a military platform – was conducted in an open and transparent manner. The final selection will be made not merely on the basis of ‘life-cycle cost’ but what the IAF describes as ‘determinable factors.’