Part II of this analysis examines how the defence ministry’s Contract Negotiation Committee (CNC) interpreted an inflated cost analysis of the Eurofighter bid and undervalued the cost of the Rafale bid, five times.
Part I of this three-part analysis is a contextual reading of the February 2019 CAG report and outlines how the IAF’s MMRCA contest was fixed to get the Rafale back into the contest after it was rejected, three times, and how the threats to a Rafale win were removed.
The airshow has 403 exhibitors participating in this edition of which 165 are international exhibitors. 63 aircraft will be present at the show, either on static display or for flight demonstrations.
Wing Commander Sahil Gandhi, who had been with SKAT since the team was re-formed in 2016 with the induction of the Hawk aircraft, went down in his aircraft after it collided with another SKAT Hawk aircraft.
Earlier this month, Boeing held the transfer ceremony at its Philadelphia facility where the newly-arrived Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Harsh Shringla accepted the aircraft, which is part of a USD 3 billion order that also includes 22 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters.
This dismissal by the court also has several errors and in one instance, restricts the exercise of its own jurisdiction, which is likely to have implications for future cases that could pertain to defence or national security.
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.
The most substantial challenge in the formulation of the RFP for 110 fighter aircraft is the incorporation of the industrial cooperation program under Chapter 07 of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), something that has never actually been implemented in any form before.
Even after two decades since the acquisition case, the Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) search has seen a system absent from trials and failing trials, being passed as technically compliant and ending up as, apparently, the cheapest. Also problematic is the difficulty its purchase could pose by provoking U.S. sanctions under their CAATSA.
The joint statement said, “The Ministers committed to start exchanges between the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and the Indian Navy.” NAVCENT is part of CENTCOM and, both, the NAVCENT and the U.S. Fifth Fleet are headquartered in Manama, Bahrain with a common commander.
The proposed transfer of F-16 wing production from Israel to India is not contingent on an order from the Indian Air Force (IAF) according to Lockheed Martin.
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.
Lockheed Martin’s Vivek Lall welcomed the IAF’s open contest for 110 fighter aircraft and explained why he thinks the F-16 makes a good case for India.
