Why would they buy another plane?
Cost of setting up, training, maintenance, etc will make its cost = additional order of Rafale with the preexisting facilities ..
New line Gripen will be = Rafale
Clearly another plane has to be damn very cheap to make it viable.
F16/18 in Tata plant is the idea ?
Source says Boeing wants to go solo.. Few pages back pasted the related information
Here is the link to the post
Dassault Rafale, tender | News & Discussions [Thread 2] | Page 142
Yes but what puzzle me is the fact that Parrikar try to push LCA Mk2, for that he needs information urgently, HAL refuse and said a comitee is needed, OK at the end he asks how long it will take to have the report of the comitee. It's a huge effort from him and the answer instead of being one month or one week as it is normal is one year! It's normal that now he looks for other solutions.
Sadly we missed a big trick here.. The ppl in the meeting should have asked for 1 month max and should have returned with plan including request for funding and may be a pvt company partnership need also.. Essentially fitting into a MII agenda of the government..
For Gripen the biggest backer is CM Fadnavis of Maharashtra as he is very keen to have the Saab unit in Maharashtra under MII plan..
Now he is a powerful man with lots of connections right from PM NaMo to Gadkari to Jaitley.. So he being the major force here whose backing Saab's interest..
For Boeing otoh its directly all top down approach with leader level talks..
What is interesting is recent last week turn of events will influence US India relations a lot.. In case the 16s sales go through and no money is asked from Pakistan to pay and aid being used to finance the deal, effectively opposition will paint it as a defeat for NDA govt foreign policies.. Even though I believe Senate may finally ask Pakistan to shell out money for 16s, essentially trying to maintain status quo till next POTUS comes in.. This also translates a similar level policy paralysis may be also visible for US India partnership or say a Boeing bid for MII backed by US government
.
So in all probability this year Dec end other than Rafale there is no scope for any other MII.
Effectively that's a reprieve for our domestic LCA program and they do have say 18 months from now to come up with something credible for MK2.
Bcz anything against LCA program won't be very easy for NDA after all LCA name Tejas was given by AB Vajpayee. For Gripens case there has to be lot of negatives cited in press for domestic audience consumption against MK2 issues and painting HAL/ADA as villains.. That's difficult as in another few years elections would be back and NDA may be seen against PSU people..
Oh btw who knows in 18 months the mark1A rolls out and the whole country cheers for that.. And in an Instant mark2 development plan is given a green signal..
Endless opportunities here..
FOC now to mark1A delivery.. each of these milestones would make the government compel to continue with mark2 inspite of all lobby and opportunities