Approval to go ahead
with a formal requests for proposals
(RfP) for 126 medium mufti-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) to replace Indian Air
Force (IAF) MiG-21s, Jaguars, and MiG-27’s was granted by India’s Defence Acquisition
Council on June 29, 2007. The RfP, which included options on a further 64
aircraft was issued on August 28, 2007 to six potential vendors. Candidates
were the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Dassault Rafael, Eurofighter Typhoon,
Lockheed Martin F-16N, RAC MiG-35, and Saab JAS 39 Gripen. The deadline for
responses was set as March 3, 2008, but this was later extended after some
bidders said that they did not have sufficient time to respond to the request
and final bids were submitted on April 28, 2008.
After technical evaluation of the bids,
in-country field trials of the six MMRCA contenders started in August 2009 and
continued into 2010. After these extensive evaluations had been completed India’s
Ministry of Defence announced on April 27, 2011 that it had short listed the
Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon and eliminated all other contenders for
the requirement.
The commercial bids from
the two competitors were opened on November 4, 2011, following which there was
a period of evaluation of both offers. This evaluation assessed various
parameters that would affect the final selection, not only including the lowest
bid, but also taking into account life-cycle costs and potential off-set
agreements.
Off-set agreements were given particular
emphasis in the MMRCA competition as it is a normal requirement in Indian
defence deals with foreign contractors to ask for a 30% offset. In this case,
however, a 50% offset was stipulated. Approval of the evaluation report on the
offset proposals from both finalists was granted on October 7, 2011 by the
Defence Acquisition Council.
Final selection of the
Rafale was made on January 31.2012 and on February 17, 2012 the Defence
Minister confirmed that the Contract Negotiations Committee has now commenced
negotiations to finalize the deal.
There is likely to be
six month of further contract negotiations after which eight stages of scrutiny
will have to be passed before the deal can be signed. This will include
approvals by the Defence Ministry and Defence Finance followed by examinations
by the independent monitors of the Central Vigilance Commission, National
Security Council Secretariat, Finance Ministry and the Cabinet committee for
Security. It is believed that final contract can be signed within nine months.
It should be noted that this is a long and
ponderous process. It should also be noted that the Indians’ are actually going
to get airplanes within the foreseeable future. More then the Canadian
government can say. It’s true that the F-35 was not included in the selection process;
it’s also true that aircraft manufacturers (“coff coff – Eurofighter) are still
lining up offering better prices in an attempt to steal the deal from Dassault.
Manufacturers actually have an incentive to offer their best prices and they
do. A long and ponderous process, but one the Canadian government might learn
from.
