A Diplomatic View of the MMRCA Deal
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India’s tender for 126 Medium Range Multi-role
Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) has been the object of
intensive and prolonged international interest.
Such a massive order for advanced aircraft by a
single country for procurement from the
international market is rare. All the major defence
equipment exporters in the world have been
eyeing this $10 billion contract avidly, with US,
Russia, France, Sweden and the European
consortium of Germany, UK, Italy and Spain in
the fray. The total value of this contract will, of
course, be much more than the $10 billion price
tag being currently mentioned if the supply of
spare parts, upgrades etc over the 30 to 40 year
service life of the aircraft are taken into account.
There are other fall-outs also, as such a major
contract creates mutual stakes and networks of
cooperation between defence establishments,
with a catalytic effect not only in enhancing
defence cooperation in general, but in improving
political relations as well.
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A lot of suspense has accompanied this tender,
with a great deal of uncertainty about which
aircraft would eventually be shortlisted for final
selection. Observers were unclear whether the
evaluation process would be purely technical, or
would be influenced by political considerations. In
any case, the general belief is that decisions on
such high-value defence contracts that have an
important political fall-out can never be divorced
from politics and therefore can never be purely
technical.
...if the US can impose an arms embargo
against China despite the intensity of their
economic and financial ties and the need to
manage their conflicting strategic interests
in East Asia which carries its own
compulsions of keeping China in good
humour, why cannot the US revise its policy
of arming a country that is unstable, almost
failing as a state in US eyes, irresponsible
on nuclear matters, and most responsible
for the dangerous spread of extremism and
terrorism in the region and well beyond?
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The lack of confidence in our defence
procurement process, with its inordinate delays
and lack of transparency, added to speculation
about the time-frame of decision making. The
marked bureaucratic apathy in the Ministry of
Defence, with officials inclined to avoid taking
responsibility for decisions and delaying them as
much as possible so as to protect themselves
from potential controversies later, was seen as
good reason to expect procrastination. The
noxious games played by competing companies
against each other, roping in members of
parliament and planting press articles to cast
doubt on the probity of the evaluation process
and the final award, which has featured as an
unpalatable side-show of defence deals in India,
was expected to play its part too in deferring
decisions.
It was widely believed that the evaluation process
would be highly complex in any case, with the
performance parameters listed for the aircraft
being too numerous, and none of the competing
aircraft expected to meet all of them in trials.
Beyond this, it was bandied about by cynics that
even if the Air Force were to do a purely objective
performance-based exercise in evaluating the
aircraft, its final recommendation would watch
for signals from the Ministry of Defence.
In the event, the evaluation process for the
MMRCA deal has proceeded remarkably well. A
very difficult exercise has been completed in good
time. Confidentiality has been maintained, apart
from the bizarre instance of an off-sets related file
being found in a most unlikely place. Despite
efforts by interested parties to probe into the
progress of the evaluation process, no substantial
leakage of information seems to have occurred,
indicating, to the credit of those involved, that the
integrity of the process was maintained. The
most striking aspect of the technical evaluation is,
however, the rather unexpected result. Only the
Eurofighter and the Rafale have been retained in
the short list for final selection; the two US aircraft
have been excluded from further consideration.
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...............for full article please visit above link
....those are some unconfirmed media reports, but possible....I will try and get you a link of a US fighter X plane mde by lockheed I guess which exactly matches to what China has made, more than LMFS, the structure is 80% the same...
