livefist says $2.4 billion contract ?

The Indian government today signed the $2.4-billion (Rs 10,900-crore) contract with French firms Dassault and Thales to upgrade 51 Mirage 2000H/TH fighter jets. The contract was signed at the Indian Ministry of Derfence today.

the chances of IN opting for the typhoon are a little less than zero.

IN has 46 mig-29k’s on order, it has invested heavily in the NLCA project, has signed firm orders for an initial batch of 6 and expressed commitment for a total of 50. with around 100 Mig-29k and LCA expected to join IN, there is no place for yet another 4th generation fighter.

any future addition would be a 5th generation aircraft. the likeliest candidates are
a) naval version of PAKFA/FGFA, which russia too would be interested in
b) naval AMCA for which IN has already expressed interest.
c) if both these projects flounder the F-35C will be the aircraft of choice.

if you act naive enough to believe that a potential large deal plays no part in how the OEM country’s force showcases the products, it is your choice.
now, I can come up with a number of counter examples where RAF, luftwaffe or USAF has directly contributed to their respective OEM’s marketing efforts but I don’t think you are naive or ill-inofrmed. so it is likely those would be deliberately ignored.
cheers.

that’s really hair splitting. EADS had already offered the typhoon back in 2004 for the earlier avatar of the MRCA. in 2007 the RFP for the current avatar of MRCA was a formality, everyone knew which co’s were going to get the RFPs.

and if not full capabilities (in fact I don’t see why not, in an ideal world for EADS the whole aircraft is going to land in IAF’s hands) displaying at least a very large proportion of its capabilities would be in UK’s favour. be assured that EADS won;t be coy in displaying the EF, ahd it been so IAF would have rejected it.

However, I would like to ask a question: If Su-30MKI is a so perfect and satisifying solution in performance, capability, and future potential for IAF before the era of 5th Gen fighter comes, then why IAF starts MMRCA competition ?? Why not just buy more Su-30MKI with future upgrading ?? Is there any unique (and important enough) function, capability, or requirement for IAF that can only be achieved by Typhoon / Rafale, but not the upgrading Su-30MKI ??

the answer to that lies in the protracted history of the MRCA deal.
let’s go back to the year 2000, IAF is facing a massive shortfall of squadron numbers due to the imminent retirement of a large number of mig-21’s and mig-23. induction of the ‘heavy’ su-30mki was going on at the rate of little less than one sqdn a year. IAF needed a cheap fighter to make up numbers.
what better option than the mirage-2000. it is little known that IAF had invested in infrastructure to support about 150 mirage-2000’s in the 80’s but orders had to stop at 40 something because of a financial crunch around 1990. m2k was always popular in the IAF and it was not hurt one bit by the performances in kargil war, where it was modified to be used in environment the designers hadn’t thought of and did it well enough.

hence an expression of interest on the part of IAF to buy 126 mirage-2000, way back in 2001. of course, it was not known as MRCA back then.

however, the govt, ever afraid of allegations of defence scams, forced MOD/IAF to make it a multi-party competition, launching the MRCA competition in 2004. RFI’s were sent for mirage-2000, mig-29ovt, gripen and F-16. due to slow movement on the part of MOD the ground situation changed dramatically, mig replaced the OVT with mig-35, dassault withdrew the mirage-2000-5 and offered rafale in stead. EF and F/a-18 also wanted to join the race. the original competition had thus lost its original meaning and had to be scrapped. it was no longer a competition to select light aircraft.
do note that IAF ordered another 40 su-30mki around the same time.

the MRCA race had by this time acquired a life of its own and IAF decided to go ahead with it although the reasons were probably quite different from their original intent. the rest of the history is I believe well known to forumers. what is less well known is that the mki order increased from 190 when the MRCA started to 272 right now, an increase of almost 50%.

pardon me, how is the discussion of reliability of a media source insult or slander ? this is very random.
I am quite sure I didn’t indulge in any slander.

re: prithvi, just like you can’t replace a tank with APC, you can’t replace a rithvi with prahaar. sometimes a large warhead is needed. ever wondered why air forces haven’t replaced all their 2000 lb bombs with 4 500 lb ones ?
I can’t say more than this, if prithvi is replaced it will be with something with shourya. prahaar does not replace anything, it’s in a new role.