And in more news, India has requested a sale of 9 C-130Js in addition to the 6 already ordered of which 5 have been delivered. Will take the total C-130J fleet to 15. They really are very happy with Lock Mart and the C-130J in this particular deal.

Aviation Week link

India has issued a letter of request to buy an additional nine more C-130J transport aircraft, Defense Minister A.K. Antony told parliament Dec. 7.

On Oct. 26, the Pentagon notified the U.S. Congress of a possible sale to India of six Lockheed Martin C-130Js, plus associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support, for an estimated $1.2 billion, on top of six of the airlifters ordered for the same price in 2008.

The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress that in addition to the six aircraft, the deal would include “six Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 spare engines, eight AN/AAR-47 missile warning systems (two of them spares), eight AN/ALR-56M advanced radar warning receivers (two of them spares), eight AN/ALE-47 countermeasures dispensing systems (two of them spares), eight AAQ-22 Star Safire III special operations suites (two of them spares), eight ARC-210 radios (non-comsec) and 3,200 flare cartridges.”

Antony says a proposal for the procurement of 75 basic trainer aircraft is progressing, though no contract has been signed so far.

“The cost of the procurements will be known once the contracts are finalized and signed,” he says.

plenty more pics of the DRDO EMB-145I AEW&C..What a beauty !

BTW, had just few mails exchanged with some folks from Czech Republic… As you know they currently have a campaign to keep/get rid of the Gripen after 2014 going on and some figures from recent years have emerged..

The flying hours cost of the Czech JAS39C/D, they said, was indeed cheaper than their neighbors had, estimated at 250,000 Czech Koruna ($13,250). Comparatively, Polish F-16 Block 52 cost more than 350,000 Czech Koruna ($18,500) to fly.

The guy I was talking to said that he expected the EF/Rafale to cost comparably to an F-16 which required roughly double of the service personnel compared to 4+ gen. Got no hard figures to prove this but you surely get the picture..

Would the Gripen’s cost here include fuel, spares and labour ? Saab’s advertised direct operating cost for the Gripen C/D is in the $3000 or thereabouts range, far far lower than the $13,250 that you’re quoting here. But then of course, reality and advertised costs can be quite different. Saab does advertise the Gripen NG as the world’s MOST advanced fighter jet. Now, who here believes that is true?

MiG-29UPG with the Kh-35E anti-ship missile. This is truly handy multi-role capability for the IAF.

To sum up the article posted by Sintra above:
– The entire leadership has voted for the Gripen
– Gripen represents best value for money
– The savings are good for the rest of the military
– Reports about Gripen having failed in the evaluation are not commented as the evaluation report is confidential according Ueli Maurer
– Costs for the 22 Gripen = 3.1 bln Franken
– Cost difference between the Gripen and its competitors has not been disclosed but is said to be significant
– Gripen meets requirements and is the best solution “We can’t always afford the best of the best”.
– Deal should be finalised by late 2012
– Financial terms have yet to be defined

A pity for the Rafale which faired best in the evaluation which isn’t surprising for me given the maturity in weapons/stores integration and the fact that the French were able to demonstrate their AESA radar.

IMO the Gripen is a good choice to replace the F-5, whether it is a good choice wrt a potential F/A-18 replacement in the future, however, is yet another question.

The offered variant is the JAS 39C/D.

Reading this makes one thing quite obvious- that Boeing folks spotted it from a mile and clearly recognised that the Super Hornet would be overkill with its APG-79 when the Swiss requirements were not that stringent. Rafale and Typhoon too would’ve been overkill for Swiss requirements.

With a slightly less powerful engine & similar T/W ratio, T-50 is significantly slower than the Gripen A/B/C/D.

If they had similar T/W ratios, then why would the T-50 be significantly slower than the Gripen A/B/C/D? Are you talking about acceleration times or top speed (which is good enough for the T-50)?

Malaysia is not going to buy enough of any type for it to make sense to build it under licence.

agree with that. For such small order sizes, it makes no sense whatsoever to seek a licence. Otherwise, their delivery rates will be pitifully low till the time they learn the ropes of manufacturing the fighter, by which time the order would’ve been completed anyway.

It is pretty cheap, in fact. In times where Norwegians estimate the total value of a contract for 56 F-35s at more than ten times as much, this is an outright steal.

$149.5 million per unit is a steal ?

I don’t think so. I’m not comparing it to the price of F-35s, but the Gripen’s USP has always been that it was a fighter that brought good capability at an affordable price.

The deal is being estimated to cost Switzerland $3.29 billion for 22 Gripen NGs..that makes it $149.5 million each, surely including training, infrastructure, simulators, etc. Is there any ToT involved in this deal for RUAG?

The cheapest of the 3 bids is still not that cheap.