Meet the IAF's latest bird

I had written about India's MMRCA deal many moons ago on this blog, and about the six beautiful aircraft that were vying to be a part of the Indian Air Force's inventory in the coming decades. Considering the defense deal of the decade by many, this deal was touted as a completely fair and transparent deal in which the winner would be decided solely on the IAF's checklist of what it was looking for in the winning aircraft. Of course, the argument goes that to make it a completely technical decision was a completely political decision.

Given that there was so much global attention paid to this deal, in which India was looking to get 126 fighter aircraft and a possible 80 added on for a price that could stretch beyond USD 15 billion, or INR 75,000 Crore, I think India's policy makers thought it best to not screw it up completely. Thus, in a land beset by defense scandals, this was supposed to be a rare case of a defense deal in which proper procedure was followed and the Armed Forces' best interest kept in mind. Of course, it is not to say that politicians haven't made money off it - I'm sure they have, but as was the supposed case in Bofors, despite the Gandhi family and the Government making money off it, the gun was actually very good and well liked by the Army. The same, many online observers and commentators are saying, may be true here.

The deal did take over a decade to materialize, and was not fraught without its moments of uncertainty and possible scandal. This link by the Asian Age gives a good idea of the time line of this deal.

• 2000: Indian Air Force (IAF) conveys to defence ministry its interest in acquiring medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) to replace its ageing fleet of Soviet-era MiG-21s and because of delays in developing the indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA).
• 2001: IAF issues request for information (RFI) for 126 combat jets.
• 2003: IAF seeks defence ministry's permission to buy 50 more French Mirage-2000s to shore up the only MMRCAs in its fleet as a stop-gap arrangement. The aircraft had been acquired in the mid-1980s.
• 2004: Defence ministry asks IAF to instead issue a larger MMRCA tender.
• 2005: Defence ministry issues initial MMRCA tender but withdraws it quickly even as it starts receiving responses from vendors. 
• 2006: The then IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, flags the dwindling squadron strength of the force. From a sanctioned strength of 39.5 combat squadrons, the IAF is down to 33 squadrons.
• August 2007: India issues the tender for 126 MMRCAs at an estimated cost of $10.4 billion.
• February 2008: US majors Boeing and Lockheed Martin, Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, France's Dassault, European consortium EADS and Sweden's SAAB submit their bids.
• April 2009: Reports that Dassault and SAAB are out of the race.
• May 2009: Defence ministry says Dassault and SAAB still in contention.
• April 2010: IAF completes its flight and weapons evaluation of the six contenders on the basis of 643 parameters.
• December 2010: Offset proposals of contenders goes missing; later found on the roadside in south Delhi. The incident threatens to derail the tendering process.
• April 2011: India down-selects EADS and Dassault for the final leg of the contest, rejecting the other four contenders.
• November 2011: The commercial offers from European consortium Eurofighter and France's Dassault Aviation opened.
• January 31, 2012: Dassault informed that it has emerged as the lowest bidder.

As a caveat, the deal is not a done deal yet. In fact, what has happened is that now Dassault will enter into exclusive negotiations with the Air Force and the Ministry of Defense to hammer out the nitty gritty of the deal, such as the final price per aircraft, the weaponry, the modifications, the transfer of technology, and other aspects. According to the media, a firm agreement will only be signed not before 9 months from now, at least.

I will come back to the whining and hand wringing that is going on around the world currently with many people unhappy that their product was not chosen, but right now, I want to write more about the beautiful and deadly aircraft that the Indian Government has selected to negotiate exclusively with and possibly induct into the Armed Forces, provided there are no major scandals and allegations and obstacles thrown in the way by interested parties.

Both Eurofighter and the Rafale are excellent 4.5 generation fighter jets, but India has had a great experience with French fighters, most recently with the Mirage 2000 during the Kargil War. Both planes look beautiful, are twin engined, have canards, and offer the AESA radar, a new age radar that allows a plane to track and engage multiple aggressors at once.

Photo Copyright held by online source

Photo Copyright held by online source

Photo Copyright held by online source

India has been good for France and Sarkozy in particular, who goes to polls in three months and this can be seen as a major victory for him and a lifeline to the French industry. Of course, that is not to say that despite French military hardware to Pakistan, France has not been a good military partner to India, albeit expensive, but much more reliable than even the Russians in many cases, and definitely more than the Americans. As India announced that the Rafale had been selected as the lowest bidder, beating the Eurofighter by about USD 5-6 million per aircraft, the stock price of Dassault on the Paris Stock Exchange rose 22%!

The French already work with India on a number of big ticket projects, the most important being the construction of the 6 Scorpene submarines, 4 of which are under construction/to be built in India. Then India is working closely with SNECMA, a French engine manufacturer, on our own Kaveri engine. In addition, India is looking for major support from France on nuclear know-how, and this is where France has often gone against the rest of the nuclear suppliers group in their attempt to block transfer of critical technology and knowhow to India.

It has been very amusing to read the reaction of the UK and the USA on finding out that Dassault's the L1. Particularly laughable has been the British insistence that the ungrateful Indians should have gone for the Eurofighter given the billions provided by the UK to India as aid. Another laughable article in the Guardian was that the reason Eurofighter, and in effect UK, failed to get the contract was because of the current Government's poor relations with the Gandhi Dynasty!

Of course, the fact that it is France is not lost on the British, and perhaps even the Americans. The colonial hang-up has refused to leave many of the politicians there, and Sarkozy and David Cameron in the past have openly made fun of each other's industrial economy. I think many Brits can't over the fact that the UK has provided India over a Billion GBP in aid and yet the Indians did this to them. France, as it turns out, gave less than a tenth of that aid amount in the same period! So the article above from the Daily Mail goes to great lengths to again resort to the kind of condescension that one can expect from a white colonialist. Yes, we're corrupt, yes we're poor, and yes our entire system is a kleptocracy. There's no doubt about any of these and sure the Brits are angry, but linking relations with Gandhi's (who are they anyway?), giving of aid, to a defense deal shows the hypocrisy that is prevalent in the west when it comes to doing business with the third world.

The angst is on all shores of the Atlantic, not just the Eastern shores. The US has not been to bullying or forceful since the Super Hornet and Fighting Falcon were not downselected from the original six contenders. An article in the American site, The Agonist, says that the US lost out to India because of its unwillingness to share technology with India at the level that France is proposing to do. Also, as some online commentators pointed out, did President Obama really think India would go for an American product even though they know its a watered down version of their best, with some critical technologies withheld, only because of this new India-US partnership and camaraderie?

Of course, it would have been the best situation if India had been manufacturing such cutting edge fighter jets on its own, but we're far from that state, though not as far now as say 20 years ago, but till then, India needs to maintain a minimum deterrence because it is becoming increasingly clear that the Chinese are becoming cockier by the day. The whole of South East Asia hates them, and since financial bullying can't win you land, i suppose it will have to be the good old military bullying. Of course, the bottom line is that China is in a hurry to be a super power, and since it has none of the institutions that constitute a modern society, it can only influence others by money and by force. Defense Aerospace magazine has a very good article on the political analysis of the deal. The article cites a mix of geo-political compulsions, a lot of historical precedents, and what is the best deal from the Indians' point of view.

I love the Armed Forces, still have that little boy's adoration for their cool weaponry, and am eager to see them expand and become better. Of course, these go against my visions of peace and stability at the highest level of human society, but I have always been a utopian, and have always been shown that it simply does not, and cannot exist. So let us hope to welcome the sexy beast to the fold, our poverty, illiteracy, health care and homelessness notwithstanding! :-)