India to Buy 200 Aircraft Instead of 126

The Indian Air Force (IAF) could purchase upwards of 200 aircraft to ramp up its ageing and depleting fleet of fighters, adding around 80 more to the figure of 126 it had planned earlier. “The number could go up by 70-80 if necessary,” Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar here. Hitherto, a figure of 126 multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA) had been mentioned for the IAF order but this number was widely expected to rise due to the prolonged delay in acquiring the new planes. To add to the IAF’s woes, there have been huge time and cost overruns in developing the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA), prototypes of which have been flying since 2000 but which is expected to be inducted into service only by 2012. The cost of 126 aircraft had been estimated at $10 billion, making it India’s biggest ever defence deal. The additional aircraft would cost $6 billion, raising the size of the deal to $16 billion. Asked when the global tender for the MRCAs would be issued, Raju cryptically replied, “Soon”. India’s Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had cleared the tender June 29, and this was expected to have gone out within a month to the manufacturers of the six aircraft that are in the fray. Officials are tight-lipped on the reasons for the delay but indicate this could be because of some top-level changes in the defence ministry.Vijay Singh is the new defence secretary in place of Shekhar Dutt, who has retired. N.K. Narang has come in as secretary (Defence Accounts) replacing V.K. Mishra, who has retired. No replacement has been named for Sheelbhadra Banerjee, the director general (Acquisitions) who has moved to another assignment. All three officials are members of the DAC and would need time to study the voluminous IAF tender to understand its complexities.While the DAC has cleared a tender for 126 aircraft, the additional jets are likely to be purchased as a “follow-on” order as the IAF has done in the case of 80 Mi-17 medium lift helicopters it is purchasing from Russia. The IAF desperately needs new aircraft to replace its ageing fleet of Soviet-era MiG-21 fighters that make up 21 squadrons of its 30-squadron fleet of combat aircraft. The IAF has a sanctioned strength of 45 fighter squadrons but the highest it has ever been able to achieve is 39-and-a-half squadrons.The tender, or Request For Proposal (RFP) would now be sent out to the manufacturers of six aircraft: the US F-16 and F-18 Super Hornet, the Swedish Gripen, the French Rafale, the Russian MiG-35 and the European consortium’s Eurofighter.Once the RFP is issued, the manufacturers will have six months to respond, following which a professional team would conduct a technical evaluation of the proposals received to check for compliance with the IAF’s operational requirements and other RFP conditions.Extensive field trials would then be carried out to evaluate the performance of the different aircraft. Finally, the commercial proposal of the vendors short-listed after technical and field evaluations would be examined and compared.The defence ministry’s Contract Negotiation Committee (CNC) would then hold discussions with the vendors before identifying the manufacturer who would be awarded the IAF order.The CNC would submit its report to the defence minister, who would forward it to the finance minister. After the file returns to the defence ministry, it would go for final approval to the cabinet committee on security (CCS). This process would take some two-and-a-half years.After the contract is signed with the chosen manufacturer, it would take another two-and-a-half year before the first aircraft start arriving.