Deadline Emerges For India's $10B Warplane Deal

[sonicboom]

Deadline Emerges For India's $10B Warplane Deal

VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI
Published: 19 Jan 2011 13:06

NEW DELHI - India could award the $10 billion Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contract by the end of the year, according to the country's defense minister.

M.M. Pallam Raju, the minister of state for defense, said on the sidelines of a Jan. 19 conference here that the warplane contest could be decided by December. The conference was hosted by an industrial lobby group, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.

"I am hopeful of awarding it by the end of this year," Raju said.

The MMRCA program, for the purchase of 126 planes, is running behind schedule, The Indian Defence Ministry has made no formal announcement on the short-listing of aircraft after flight trials last year.

Raju said the ministry still has to carry out a comparative analysis of different vendors in terms of offset and transfer of technology offers before the financial bids are opened.

Earlier this month, a secret file pertaining to the MMRCA's offset program was lost and later recovered by Delhi police. An internal inquiry by the Defence Ministry has so far not named any individual behind the lapse, sources said.

Six aircraft vying for the MMRCA contract went through field evaluations, a series of flight trials and ground tests, in mid-2010. They include two U.S. fighter jets, Boeing's F/A-18 and Lockheed Martin's F-16, as well as the Rafale, built by France's Dassault; the MiG-35, built by RAC MiG of Russia; the Eurofighter Typhoon; and the Gripen, built by Saab of Sweden.


Deadline Emerges For India's $10B Warplane Deal - Defense News

[keysersoze]

End of the year? Are they kidding lol. And that is not even definite lets asumme they do so Then basing it upon the SAUDI delivery schedule The aircraft may not start delivery until 2015....... And that only if moe aircraft are diverted from production for other european airforces.

[keysersoze]

HYDERABAD: The multi-billion dollar deal to acquire 126 fighter jets under the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) project is likely to be inked by mid-2011, Indian Air Force chief said.

"It is a big deal. We have finished the evaluation and the matter is with the (defence) ministry now. Hopefully, it will progress and we will be able to sign the contract by July next year. After that it takes three years for delivery," Air chief marshal P V Naik said.

He was talking to reporters after reviewing the Combined Graduation Parade of flight cadets of IAF at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal, about 35 km from here.

Six global aeronautical firms are in the fray for the contract for which a tender was floated in August 2007.

The chief of Air Staff said besides the MMRCA project, deals for inducting new aircraft were in the pipeline. India and Russia are jointly developing the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA). "We will be going in for about 200-250 of such fighter planes starting from 2017 onwards."

With regard to transport aircraft, the IAF will buy C-17 American transport aircraft for which negotiations are going on, Naik said.

"The air force is going in for the Medium Transport Aircraft in collaboration with Russia. We are also going in for air to air refueling tankers (Flight Re-fueling Aircraft) for which we have given a global request for proposal (RFP). The C-130 J Hercules will be inducted from January," he said.

Evaluation is on to buy attack helicopters and heavy lift choppers, the IAF chief said.

Read more: Deal to buy 126 fighter jets to be inked by mid-2011: IAF - The Times of India Deal to buy 126 fighter jets to be inked by mid-2011: IAF - The Times of India