Welcome back to India Defence Online...If you haven't done so yet, subscribe to the RSS feed as it will save you a lot of time. Thanks for following the site!
In a recent development which may cause dismay to France, Israel has offered to upgrade the Mirage-2000 squadron with the Indian Air Force (IAF) for a price 40 per cent less than what the France have quoted.
Israel’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabi Ashkenazi recently visited India and offered the expertise of the Israeli Aircraft Industries to upgrade the Mirage-2000. Defence Ministry sources said the delegation led by Israeli defence services chief made presentations to the top Indian officials, including the chief of air staff, Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik, on the Mirage 2000 upgrade that Israel Aircraft Industries would carry out in collaboration with other firms.
Defence Ministry officials said that the cost of the Israeli bid totals $19.2 million per aircraft while the French bid is worth $30.4 million. The IAF has at least 51 Mirage 2000s and the upgrade would include superior avionics and electronic warfare systems that would extend the service life of the aircraft by 15 years.
India has already indicated to France that their quote for upgrading the Mirage-2000 is rather exorbitant and India would go for a new aircraft considering the quote. The initial offer by the French firm Thales was for $2.9 billion and Thales later came down to $2.1 billion. However, IAF finds that price steep and instead of spending $41 million on each Mirage-2000, IAF would rather buy brand new fighters.
As for France, it will be considerably upset if Israel clinches this deal from their hands since Dassault Aviation and Thales of France are the original equipment manufacturers of the Mirage-2000. Even the French top brass is keen to seal the deal before the visit of French President Mr. Sarkozy to India in early 2010. Hence, France is trying to reduce the quote more by using components from Indian firms.
The visit by Israel’s Chief of Defence Staff to India has also made Israel the prospective winner for an order of 18 quick-reaction surface-to-air missiles (QR-SAMs) from the Indian Army that could cost more than Rs 2,000 crore. Sources said that for the Spyder QR-SAM missile systems, the Indian Army may sign a contract by early next month. The IAF has already contracted the Israelis for the systems and these close-range missile defence systems will serve as a protective shield for the Indian Army’s critical immovable assets.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
