Dassault Rafale wins 126 aircrafts contract for Indian Air Force

[Principe Alessandro]

New Delhi: The Dassault Rafale fighter jet, manufactured by the French company Dassault Aviation, has won India's mammoth contract worth $10.4 billion, say sources. The Indian Air Force plans to buy 126 aircraft over the next ten years.
The process to determine the L1 (lowest bidder) has been completed, and sources indicate that the final contract is expected to be signed in the next financial year. The first 18 aircraft will be bought off the shelf. The rest 118 will be manufactured in partnership with an Indian company.
There were six contenders for the world's biggest defence deal which included the Russian MiG- 35,Lockheed Martin's F-16 Falcon, Boeing's F-18 Hornet, the Swedish Saab Grippen, Euro-Fighter Typhoon and Rafale.
Of these, the European EADS Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale were in the final race for the global tender for a medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA). The Eurofighter bid was backed by four partner nations including Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom while the Dassault Rafale was backed by the French Government.
On November 4 last year, Defence ministry had opened the commercial bid of the two firms left in the race and since then has been busy in determining the lowest bidder. The rest were rejected as they didn't meet the technical qualifications.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/da...rces-171975&cp

Well finally the Indians has chosen their new multirole aircraft and seems that they are going to have probably the strongest airforce in the Asian continent considering the fact that they are waiting also for the Russian PAK-FA.

[Sphere]

So the bribery/kickback scandal will come out in what, 5 years from now? Or is the standard now 6 years? I can never keep up with the new rules and regulations.

[ash874]

wow france defeated some tough opponents
a strong victory for their engineers

[Ahlerich]

wow france defeated some tough opponents
a strong victory for their engineers

i think they just went for the cheaper provider

It has a larger penis.

but the eurofighters penis rises higher quickly and is more agile

[Manuel I Komnenos]

They should have bought the SAAB Gripen, in order to keep the Saab Automobile in life.

[Treize]

They should have bought the SAAB Gripen, in order to keep the Saab Automobile in life.

Two different companies, my dear.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

Two different companies, my dear.

I know. They could spare a few billions to help an old friend though...

[Adar]

I think it is a quite sensible choice. Dassault is quite desperate and they already got air superiority aircraft in the form of the SU-30 and the planned PAK-FA clone developed by Sukhoi and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

So now they get a solid multirole aircraft and and extremely strong negotiation position as Dassault was rapidly running out of suitable customers to share the burden with France. I also suspect that this deal will provide India with very strong EU-support in a manner that the Eurofighter consortium would have been unable to provide.

I know. They could spare a few billions to help an old friend though...

They have been separate for a really long time. And what SAAB Automobile needs is that Swedish officials deem that the rights to current car platforms can be sold after the bankruptcy (GM transferred the rights from SAAB to GM which makes SAAB Automobolie unable to produce cars if bought by another manufacturer).

[Manuel I Komnenos]

They have been separate for a really long time. And what SAAB Automobile needs is that Swedish officials deem that the rights to current car platforms can be sold after the bankruptcy (GM transferred the rights from SAAB to GM which makes SAAB Automobolie unable to produce cars if bought by another manufacturer).

On a serious note, I really do hope that Saab Automobile survives this situation because those Swedish cars are awesome.

[Imperial]

Good for Dassault. They were threatening to shut down the rafale production if they didn't get any buyers.

[Caelifer_1991]

Would have preferred if they had chosen the Eurofighter to perhaps motivate future pan-European projects and for the sake of British production, but in the long term it's good that French production remains strong and competative too, it seems Dassault was in a bad position and it would be a great shame to see them go out of business or cease production on some significant production lines.

A good thing for Europe either way.

[Adar]

Two interesting things from Reuters

1) There is not official statement yet. Based on what I know about Indian negotiations this could very well be an attempt to make Eurofighter improve it's bid.

2) The same source stating that Rafale was the likely winner suggested this:One of the sources said France's Rafale jet was the likely winner, adding that the defense ministry was now considering buying another 80 or so jets and could invite bidders excluded from the current process to take part.
Already Asia's third-largest economy and growing fast, India has emerged as the world's leading importer of weapons as it jostles with China for influence and reach on the world stage.

Would have preferred if they had chosen the Eurofighter to perhaps motivate future pan-European projects and for the sake of British production, but in the long term it's good that French production remains strong and competative too, it seems Dassault was in a bad position and it would be a great shame to see them go out of business or cease production on some significant production lines.

A good thing for Europe either way.

108 of the planes will be manufactured in India and Dassault is in a very weak negotiation position. So having the Eurofighter consortium win would have been both more beneficial to European cooperation and European industry. The only option worse for European community would probably have been a Russian victory.

[Caelifer_1991]

108 of the planes will be manufactured in India and Dassault is in a very weak negotiation position. So having the Eurofighter consortium win would have been both more beneficial to European cooperation and European industry. The only option worse for European community would probably have been a Russian victory.

Which is why I would have preferred the Eurofighter option But even if it's not as good as other options for EU industry, it is still a plus point. With economic news as it has been, I'll take any good news I can get...

[Adar]

Which is why I would have preferred the Eurofighter option But even if it's not as good as other options for EU industry, it is still a plus point. With economic news as it has been, I'll take any good news I can get...

Based on the fact that the only two proposals remaining were Eurofighter and Dassaults I have a hard time seeing the plus point

[molonthegreat]

Those sneaky Frenchmen have also underbid the Gripen in Switzerland while the Swiss parliament is investigating the plane.

[Adar]

Those sneaky Frenchmen have also underbid the Gripen in Switzerland while the Swiss parliament is investigating the plane.

What they actually did was to offer a lower number of planes at a lower cost. The cost per airplane is still much higher. And it would still be completely retarded for Switzerland to accept the deal as Gripen got a superior availability.

In Libya 19 Rafale flew 1900 sorties in the same time period as 5 Gripen flew 695 sorties. Which means 100 sorties per Rafale and 139 sorties per Gripen.

In flight hours Gripen looks even more superior with 2000 flight hours while Rafale delivered a total of 6000 flight hour. So the Gripens delivered roughly 27 % more flight time than the Rafales.

If Libya is a good example of war like conditions, then it means that the 22 Gripens would deliver 155 %of the flight capability of Rafale. Furthermore they would still be cheaper in maintenance costs and share enggine with the F-18s already operated by the Swiss airforce.

This is of course of less value to India who want a multirole midweight fighter who can defeat F-16s while on bombing missions. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if we also saw them copy the IRST (infra red sensor system) from Rafale and put it into their PAK FA clone. Dassaults IRST is supposed to be quite good and it should be quite similar in size to what HAL would like to put in their Hal-PAK FA

[mrmouth]

If Libya is a good example of war like conditions

You mean with the US teeing it up for everyone?

They (India), like everyone else, should be building/improving their abilities to use these toys. As well as actually having a tangible close air support capability. The only country to actually use fighters in such sustained manner in recent memory was the US in Afghanistan during the Battle of Takur Ghar where F-16's (of course) strafed enemy positions in the mountains with their cannons, and found it incredibly challenging to do.

You'd think the last 10 years might have drilled the importance of true CAS into peoples minds. Not least of which are the countries who had to rely on the US in Afghanistan and Libya, or the countries that border nutjobs.

[hellheaven1987]

A good news to show that why Indian military is in a bad shape...

[DarthLazy]

Really retarded decision imo, should have gone for the Eurofighter, it has better looks .

[Eskali]

Really retarded decision imo, should have gone for the Eurofighter, it has better looks .

The Rafale cockpit is damn sexy though