French bid to re-enter race for combat aircraft

NEW DELHI: Making a strong bid to push its fighter plane, Rafale, back in contention for the 126 Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft India seeks to acquire, a high-level delegation from France will meet officials in the Defence Ministry on Friday.

Led by Jacques Lajugi, Head of France’s Air International Development, the delegation will call on Defence Secretary Vijay Singh to explore the possibility of re-entering the race of five other manufacturers from the United States, Sweden, Russia and Europe, sources in the Ministry said.

Among the six manufacturers that had responded to India’s Request for Proposal, sources said that Rafale had been eliminated from the race as it failed in the technical evaluations.

However, it is now understood that the report of the committee is yet to be perused by the Defence Procurement Board.

The committee report making such a recommendation was based on the response of the French company Dassault, which makes Rafale. The sources said the questions largely related to equipment and other add-ons that the user wanted to have, but not provided by the manufacturer.

The sources said that since the recommendation of the evaluation committee was made, the French manufacturer has provided necessary information that the Indian Air Force had sought.