The Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly is urging progress on the FCAS fighter programme amid growing tensions over industrial workshare, with Berlin insisting Dassault adhere to existing agreements. The call comes as reports indicate Germany and France may abandon the joint project altogether and instead shift focus to a shared military cloud system.
Germany stopped selling weapons to Saudi Arabia over the war on Yemen’s Houthi militia. It has now started selling weapons to Saudi Arabia again, to intercept missile attacks from the same Houthis aimed at Israel.
India bans the TikTok smartphone app
Indian and Chinese corps commanders to meet on Tuesday
Japan cancels Aegis Ashore
US-Russian intercepts
New AESA radar for German Eurofighter Typhoons
The F-15EX is neither a ‘navy fighter’ nor a renamed F-16 and the IAF is curious about it. That’s why the Rafale might finally have a formidable challenger, if India can get past the fact that it’s American.
One representative of an MMRCA 2.0 competitor said, “The process is so elaborate, difficult and expensive. If you’re permitting cheating, at least have the decency to not make the rest of us work so hard.” “Just the thought of it being tailored to one of the contestant would discredit the whole idea of a competitive bidding process,” said another.
We examine lessons learned from the MMRCA contest and look at seven ways to derisk the process to prevent a repeat of the result in the earlier MMRCA competition.
Angad Singh and Pushan Das help StratPost editor Saurabh Joshi understand how the new IAF fighter contest will be different from the last one and why it will take two general elections before an order is placed.
Updated: MMRCA 2.0 will be a repeat of the MMRCA contest with the same six aircraft: F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III, MiG-35, F-16 Block 70, Gripen E, Eurofighter and Rafale.
The defence ministry has provided a singular and unconvincing defence of why it did not ask for, or entertain, a competing commercial offer for the Eurofighter Typhoon pitched by Airbus.
Boeing’s Shelly Lavender said they will be meeting the defense ministry to ‘go through the details’ of their offer for an Indian F/A-18 assembly line.
Saab has offered its cutting-edge Gallium Nitride AESA radar technology if India decides to produce the Gripen fighter aircraft for the IAF.
Boeing, Saab and Lockheed Martin are offering to build fighters in India and each is bringing something different to the table.
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Dassault can wait to have their way in the MMRCA negotiations knowing the aversion of the IAF and defense ministry to a re-tender, unless the defense ministry walks away from the table itself, first.
