I’m not sure what Dassault propose but Eurofighter propose partnership on the program. India would be free to do as it wished with developments that they desired to implement on Typhoon. I’m not sure if partnership status would mean India supplanting other manufacturers for the provision of some components in the aircraft they ordered. If India could produce those components more cheaply than Eurofighter it would make sense to source them from India, would it not? Not just for the frames for the IAF but for all customers. That would make Typhoon more competitive on price when trying to secure future contracts.

The trouble is, production of components in India may not kick in till 2018, and that the initial production rate might be low as well, by that time over half of the deliveries for other customers should be over, and whatever demand remains could be met by the european suppliers, who would be churning out components at their highest rate.

Forgive my ignorance, but i’m aware of the 18 first build will be done in Europe.
However, wouldn’t it be a similar arangement like with HAL and IRKUT:confused:

My point is, whom ever wins will send Kits to India/HAL and slowly dwindle down the shipments as HAL get their own supply cahins up and going?
As a way of getting the transitional Indian Production going as smood as possible..?

Yeah, HAL would in all probability assemble first 30-40 straight from kits and last 60-80 from components made/assembled in India*, so the suppliers would be most strained at the time when HAL starts assembly and European lines assemble the airframes for other customers (more or less everybody wants the airframes to start arriving from 2016).

Edit: *Assuming the order swells to 189 units.

:rolleyes: You really am not getting me are you ?

1. The tender is apolitical and based purely on performance as it is now.+

2. Had the U.S policy towards India stayed the course set by President Bush this would not have been the case and the MRCA would have been a political decision favouring the Americans.

We got you the first time around. There are no “political” tenders in MoD. Either deals are made via governments or competitive trials. If competitive trials are called for, the equipment is not evaluated on political grounds.

Because Indo-U.S relations were going from strength to strength then, Obama came and things became cold.

I for one don’t believe it would not have been political if there was a favourable U.S administration.

Ah, yes… good Indo-US relations would have unlocked the secret awesomeness in US fighters which would have made SH fly harder than typhoon and F-16 more versatile than Rafale.

Then how come the initial order for 20 Tejas cost the IAF Rs 2000 crores ($400 million or thereabouts?)

According to the ToI report that came on IOC ( yeah that idiotic report claiming 1600% cost escalation) the figure was ₹150 crore besides infrastructure costs.

As you can see the EF currently and with the cleared capabilities of T3A, offers only very little of what IAF really wants.

So what you are indirectly implying is that
a) EF, both in its current or future configuration will not meet IAF requirements, ever.
b) IAF is incompetent/unwilling to evaluate the aircrafts properly and EF should not have made this far or somehow the evaluation process was heavily loaded to give EF an advantage during evaluations ?

….EF offers only the future potential to be good enough for India, if India pays for the upgrades and with delays. But as I said, if the industrial package of EF is that good, MoD/GoI will compromise on the technical shortcomings.

And on what grounds are you basing your analysis on ? besides even if GoI does have to pay for EF capability upgrades and EF deal still turns out cheaper, isn’t that good news ?

Share it please….

.. all i can say that its a red herring. It should come out within a few months hidden as yet another piece of pessimistic news. Its ok to rip out hair and whine until then 🙂

https://twitter.com/#!/saurabhjoshi/status/136384808166240256

Indian Air Force has also issued an RFI for Long Range air defense systems. LM plans to provide information on THAAD, along with Raytheon.
@saurabhjoshi New Delhi
Editor, StratPost
http://www.stratpost.com

I don’t get it, why THAAD ? and why now ?