flashback
French Rafale out of race for IAF fighters - Indian Express
Rafale Kicked out of MRCA
In a shocker, the French Rafael fighter has been knocked off a $ 10 billion contract to provide 126 combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force. The French fighter, which was one of the six contenders for the race, was officially rejected by the Defence Ministry for failing to meet qualitative requirements for the contract.
The news comes as a bit of a shock as the Indian Air Force has been maintaining that all six contenders – the American F 18 and F 16, the Eurofighter Typhoon, Russian MiG 35, Swedish Gripen NG and the French fighter – had met the technical requirements.
However, a senior defence ministry official made is clear on Thursday that Rafael has been rejected at the technical evaluation stage for failing to meet minimum performance requirements that had been detailed in the tender document. The flight trials for the remaining five fighters are now expected to commence within three months, a senior MoD official said.
"They did not meet the requirements and will not proceed to the next stage. We hope to begin trials within three months with the others that have qualified," a top Defence Ministry official said.
While the French fighter was always considered an underdog in the competition, which has been described as the largest international defence contract in the world, it was been aggressively pushed by the French government. Former President Jacques Chirac and his successor Nichols Sarkozy have been talking about the fighter in all their interactions with India.
Interestingly, a separate contract, valued at close to $ 2 billion, for the upgrade of IAF's Mirage fighter fleet has also been stuck for several months with India and France stuck in commercial negotiations. While the IAF requires an urgent upgrade, the excessive price being quoted by France for the upgrade of over 50 fighters has been a dampener.
The early elimination of the Rafael too is being attributed by insiders to high costs and failing to respond to technical queries. While the commercial bids were to be opened at a later stage, the cost of the fighter has always been considerably more than most of its competitors.
Insiders also say that the ministry was not very happy with the replies it received on technical queries that had been sent after the French company submitted its technical bid. Sources say that the `half hearted' replies and failure to provide enough information were factors that were considered in the fighter's elimination from the second round of evaluations.
The fighter had also been missing from the bi annual Aero India military aircraft exposition that takes place in Bangalore while all its competitors were showcasing their fighters.
what was this all about?^^^
