I hate to repeat myself but I bet my money on Rafale in India because of three reasons:

1- Rafale will offer the better price as always without any doubt
2- Indian pilots have experience with M2K so that a smooth transition to Rafale is guaranteed.
3- The fact that everytime these two fighters competed in the past ,the Rafale came always ahead of Typhoon..Why should this be different now?
The Eurofighter might have offered a more attractive industrial cooperation which we don’t know yet BUT, M2K and Rafale have the same suppliers which means saving money and time in logistics,spare parts,negotiations ect which is an important factor that can’t be omitted from consideration.

I disagree.

The Rafale is the main fighter of the French air force for the next 40 odd years, there isn’t really a need for a launch customer as there already is a major one.

It’s completely different to for instance the Mirage 4000, which was an awesome plane but couldn’t sell because it never got a launch customer.

Nic

If French Airforce had bought some M4000’s back in 1980’s, the plane could have sold to few customers..Otherwise not a single chance against the F-15..

Because, we know that UAE would like to have two main allies, USA + another country to be able to counter the two risks for the nation (one big: Iran and another lsser one: Saudi Arabia).

A second allie because of the link USA ans saudi Arabia.
Russia is out of question because of its links with Iran.

France is THE second strategic partner with a base in the country, so for Dassault, it seems they think that nobody can replace us.
Germany will not found a base there and UK cannot (for what I understand, but a british friend told me that I read too much british newspapers 😀 ).

China seems not a reliable partner for now, so, Dassault may think that UAE don’t have any choice.
But perhaps they are right, nobody can replace us before years. The problem is that, for cultural reason, emiratis governement don’t want to ovepraid their Rafale fleet. And I perfectly understand them.

So what do you think is going to happen now ? These 60 Rafales are more important for Dassault then 126 for India since all the UAE fighters will be manufactured in Merignac ,no licence production in customers country !

They did the same with the SH last year and nothing happened.

A Rafale order from India could pave the way for further orders but I don’t think UAE will order anything now or next year because they don’t need new fighters so urgently .The Block60 will do the job.

I’m more interested in the aftermath of this competition.

From my perspective if the Typhoon lost it would be due to a large cost difference in procurement and running.

Cheers

The one and only reason …Typhoon has already lost the Swiss contract just because of this…

It often take several years for a new radar system to be fully mature, debugged and merged with all the other systems after it has entered service.

The RBE-2AA will enter service next year, so it shall have around three years to solve any operating problem that is found during the real service operation of French AF and Navy before it is handed over to IAF.

CAPTOR-E, on the other hand, won’t be able to enter service until 2015 at least. There is simply no time for CAPTOR-E to accumulate real service operational experience and to solve the operating problems before it is handed over to the IAF.

This is why I believe the Rafale has won the race …

With UAE almost on the brink of ordering Rafale

The UAE is on the brink of ordering Rafale since how many years ? I don’t remember. 5-6 ?? Brazil and Switzerland are the next if you ask me..

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mod-$12-billion-fighter-jet-deal/1/1…

We should have a name by today or the following days.

It is also possible that no winner will be declared.. India could simply say
Dassault offered a price of 250 million $ and Eurofighter 280 million $ everything included but we need a price of – 200 million$ per aircraft so pls take another look and come back in 2 months with final revised offers ..

My prediction is 70% Rafale ( due to lower price, better ToT package and commonalities with M 2000 ‘s for which India already paid a fortune ) , 30% Typhoon..