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India has rejected the French major Dassault’s military aircraft Rafale as a contender in the race for 126 Medium Range Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA). According to the Indian Defence Ministry, the French firm was unable to fulfill the technical requirements for the contract worth $10 million.
As of now, only five global firms including Lockheed Martin, which has offered the F-16, Boeing with the F/A-18 Super Hornet, Sweden’s Saab with the Gripen, the Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG with the MiG-35, and EADS, which proposed its Eurofighter remain as potential players in the MMRCA race and will move to flight trials, the next phase of procurement.
The trials are expected in a couple of months and will be followed by weapon testing in the country of the manufacturer. Once the evaluations are complete, the commercial bids will be opened. The entire procurement process will take about five years. India’s state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has been designated as the production agency that will coordinate and manufacture the license production of the aircraft.
The MMRCA will be in the range of 14 to 30 tonnes and will be used for air defense and air-to-surface operations. Under the terms of purchase, the first 18 aircraft will come in a fly-away condition, and the remaining 108 will be manufactured under a technology-transfer process. Out of the 108 aircraft to be license-produced in India, 74 would be single-seat and 34 twin-seat.
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