AK Antony slams NDA govt over Rafale deal, says Make In India is gone

[INDIAPOSITIVE]

Antony alleged the nearly Rs 59,000 crore that India will pay for 36 fighter jets comes at a steep cost and the jets will not be manufactured in the country under the Make In India initiative.

IndiaToday.in | Posted by Mriganka Sen
New Delhi, September 24, 2016 | UPDATED 15:26 IST
Narendra Modi-led NDA government over Rafale fighter jet deal.

Antony alleged the nearly Rs 59,000 crore that India will pay for 36 fighter jets comes at a steep cost and the jets will not be manufactured in the country under the Make In India initiative.

Former Defence Minister and senior Congress leader AK Antony today criticised the Narendra Modi-led NDA government over Rafale fighter jet deal.

Antony alleged the nearly Rs 59,000 crore that India will pay for 36 fighter jets comes at a steep cost and the jets will not be manufactured in the country under the Make In India initiative.
HIGHLIGHTS

• 1
  AK Antony today criticised NDA government over Rafale fighter jet deal
• 2
  Antony alleged that the amount India will pay for 36 fighter jets comes at a steep cost

India on Friday inked a Euro 7.87 billion (approx Rs 59,000) deal with France for purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons and equipped with latest missiles that will give the IAF greater "potency" over arch rival Pakistan. The 'vanilla price' (just the aircraft alone) will cost about 91.7 million Euros each for a single seater and about 94 million Euros for a two-seater trainer aircraft.

Antony said 36 Rafale jets are not enough for the Indian Air Force (IAF). "The UPA government had decided to purchase 126 jets for urgent operational requirement of the IAF, 126 was the minimum urgent need. Are 36 jets enough?", he questioned.

Antony expressed his fear that India will be unable to maintain qualitative and quantitative advantage over Pakistan and China at a time when the two neighbours are modernising their air forces.

He said the IAF is currently down to 34 squadrons as against a sanctioned strength of 44 and the country needs more aircraft. "The present strength 32 squadron, in 2022 this will be reduced to 25, so how the government will equip the air force with more aircraft and how will they fill up the gap?", the Congress leader asked.

"India will lose heavily if there is fraud in the deal. In UPA, we used to finalise the contract only after all aspects of the deal are examined. There is no comparison between UPA and NDA. We didn't finalise the deal until France agreed to our terms and conditions. We had set our own conditions regarding for 50 per cent offset price, 18 imported jets from France, and production of another 108 jets in HAL. But that condition is gone and Make in India is also gone.

ON RUSSIA-PAKISTAN JOINT MILITARY DRILL

Speaking on the Russia-Pakistan joint military drill, the Congress leader said, "After independence, this is the first time that Russia is having a joint exercise with Pakistan. Never has Russia or former Soviet Union had a joint exercise with Pakistan".

The Rafale combat aircraft to be manufactured by French aviation company Dassault will come with various India- specific modifications including Israeli helmet mounted displays, radar warning receivers, low band jammers, 10 hour flight data recording, infra-red search and tracking, towed decoy systems among others.

ALSO READ:AK Antony attacks Manohar Parrikar on defence issues

The Inter Governmental Agreement was signed by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his visiting French counterpart Jean Yves Le Drian 16-months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India's plans to buy 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in fly away condition during his trip to France.

These combat aircraft, delivery of which will start in 36 months and will be completed in 67 months from the date the contract is inked, comes equipped with state-of-the-art missiles weaponry that will give IAF a capability that had been sorely missing in its arsenal.

The features that make the Rafale a strategic weapon in the hands of IAF, which is currently down to 34 squadrons as against a sanctioned strength of 44, includes its Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Meteor air-to-air missile with a range of 150 kilometers.


http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/...deal-says-make-in-india-is-gone/1/772326.html

 

[Skull and Bones]

Those fuckers had not inducted a single new platform in 10 years of their regime, and they couldn't bring a conclusion to the MRCA in 8 years. You lost your right to complain, Mr. Anthony.

 

[Grevion]

@PARIKRAMA there you go.
You predicted these things pretty accurately.
We need to finish MII as quickly as possible to shut these people up.

 

[third eye]

This is how good Anthony was in his job. I dont see how he can comment on what happens after he left.

 

[Rajput battalion]

lol who's talking

 

[PARIKRAMA]

The 'vanilla price' (just the aircraft alone) will cost about 91.7 million Euros each for a single seater and about 94 million Euros for a two-seater trainer aircraft.

What AK Antony chose to ignore and what most of our gullible masses also ignore is the fact that the most reliable of the people quote Rafale price in MMRCA as this

Source is this

• Interesting reference to this price is 2008.
• Now we know for sure that American side does not love Rafale in any manner and they pit them as direct competitors to their own products offered under MMRCA i.e F16 and F18
• Under the original deal this price is again clearly Flyaway price
• Now we are getting a much better version that original F3 standard under MMRCA
• The addition for customizations and specific upgrades ideally should push price much higher
• On top the price escalation from 2008 to 2015 should also see a massive rise in price.
• Do we see that really?

Mark my words, politics will be played and yellow journalism will be seen with new articles bashing Rafale deal and support for F16 and Gripen E.

The critical comment now post the deal is this

You will hear more heart burn when offset details and much later MII comes out as well

 

[SrNair]

What AK Antony chose to ignore and what most of our gullible masses also ignore is the fact that the most reliable of the people quote Rafale price in MMRCA as this
View attachment 337487
Source is this
View attachment 337488

• Interesting reference to this price is 2008.
• Now we know for sure that American side does not love Rafale in any manner and they pit them as direct competitors to their own products offered under MMRCA i.e F16 and F18
• Under the original deal this price is again clearly Flyaway price
• Now we are getting a much better version that original F3 standard under MMRCA
• The addition for customizations and specific upgrades ideally should push price much higher
• On top the price escalation from 2008 to 2015 should also see a massive rise in price.
• Do we see that really?

Mark my words, politics will be played and yellow journalism will be seen with new articles bashing Rafale deal and support for F16 and Gripen E.

The critical comment now post the deal is this
View attachment 337490
View attachment 337491

You will hear more heart burn when offset details and much later MII comes out as well

Forget about it.
Suppose if takes his words seriously,actually what we have in this nation to accept a highly sophisticated system like that?
Rafale is a generation higher than the Su series. And our industry is not mature to develop a system like this in India.
You should only eat what you can chew.
India cant make a perfect Rafale in India for now.

 

[[Bregs]]

At least the beginning has been made for Rafale but i feel MII wont come soon now as already huge amount has been allocated for this aircraft and now rest of the resources will be diverted to buy S 400 and other systems for Navy and Army

 

[cerilchan]

If blame each other there no unity among politition even amoung state e.g tamilnadu not receiving water from karnataka how.blame indians