High cost of Indian Mirage 2000 fighter upgrade causing a rethink

[SpArK]

High cost of Indian Mirage 2000 fighter upgrade causing a rethink​

French President Nicholas Sarkozy may miss signing of the Mirage 2000 upgrade deal with the Indian Air Force (IAF) during his visit to India.

While officially, “negotiations are still going on”, according India’s senior foreign ministry officials, the reason for the delay seems to be that the high cost of upgrading the fighters is causing a rethink, informed sources told defenseworld.net.


The cost of upgrading the 51 fighters is working out to an average of Euro 45 million per piece which is well over the price of acquiring a new generation fighter such as the Rafale or F-16 which is around Euro 30million-35 million. India is seeking to upgrade the fighters with Beyond Visual Range (BVR) capabilities, Look-down, shoot-down capabilities, Advanced Electronic Counter Counter Measures (ECCM) and Multi-target, multi-shoot capabilities.

The total cost is around Euro 2.4 billion of which work worth Euro 1.5 billon will be directly with the French company Dassault and the rest for work done and equipment supplied by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

In comparison, India signed a similar upgrade contract for 62 MiG-29 fighters in 2008 for around $850 million which works to $13.71 million (Euro 10.28 million approximately) per fighter.



Further, the bulk of the IAF Mirage 2000 fleet was acquired in 1986-87 which makes it over 20 year old. The upgradation process is expected to take 7-9 year and residual life of the airframe after the upgrade will be about 15-10 years. A new fighter instead will have a life of 30 plus years.



High cost of Indian Mirage 2000 fighter upgrade causing a rethink : Defense news




No upgrade needed .. Just replace them with Rafale.. Case over.

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[Markus]

This is BIG NEWS.

We need upgraded Mirages. Just negotiate and bring this deal back to track.

Mirage is a very effective and important nuclear weapons delivery system.

 

[SpArK]

Replace Mirages with Rafales

Give MRCA to EF..

win_win situation.. all are happy .. and US gets the middle finger smiley.

 

[sathya]

No upgrade needed .. Just replace them with Rafale.. Case over.

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[/QUOTE]



if only that happrns

 

[Laughing Buddha]

Sell It to some African and Latin American Country for some Amount and Buy F-16IN or Rafeal it will make both country happy..

We can sell a pcs for atleast 10 million so the actual price will come down to 25 to 30 million

We will have new aircraft and it will be another nightmare for enemy

 

[pbabu266]

Mirages is used as a bomber in kargil war means proved in mountain warfare. Any decision should taken by keeping this in notice.

 

[Ishan]

Why Dont We Upgrade it with The Help of Israel

Infact Isreali Aerospace Industries (IAI) Wud be More than Willing to upgrade

 

[SpArK]

Mirages is used as a bomber in kargil war means proved in mountain warfare. Any decision should taken by keeping this in notice.

We had done trials of all the fighters involved in MRCA in Leh. Any fighter that passed the test could be used instead..

No need to continue with old jets even if it has proved its mettle in the past.. This is the age of 5Th Gen.. The faster we move to the trend , the better we get.

Also look at the cost factor.. its huge.. 2 squadrons of Rafale is a good choice .. it can deliver even nukes.

 

[rockstarIN]

A better solution...

Just keep it as it is...get some upgradations from ELTA for ECM and weapon system/Radar if needed.

add 50 to 126 for new MCRA with the money for this upgradation..

and DO NOT BUY RAFALE, this problem will again happen if we buy their systems again...We should learn our mistakes, should not repeat the same mistake...

I know lots of ppl here do not like it

 

[Markus]

One Indian member had said earlier that he had info that India may go for F-16 outside of MMRCA and F-18 as part of MMRCA.

This makes some sense here. Money may not be diverted for Mirage upgrade and instead may be used for outright purchase of new F-16's (by adding some more funds, obviously).

Hmmm, somethings fishy.

I think, US fighters are coming to India.

 

[SpArK]

One Indian member had said earlier that he had info that India may go for F-16 outside of MMRCA and F-18 as part of MMRCA.

This makes some sense here. Money may not be diverted for Mirage upgrade and instead may be used for outright purchase of new F-16's.

Hmm, somethings fishy.

I think, US fighters are coming to India.

So we are only going to feed Sarkozy with a nuclear deal when he comes here this month.??

 

[Ishan]

One Indian member had said earlier that he had info that India may go for F-16 outside of MMRCA and F-18 as part of MMRCA.

This makes some sense here. Money may not be diverted for Mirage upgrade and instead may be used for outright purchase of new F-16's.

Hmm, somethings fishy.

I think, US fighters are coming to India.

Will it be F-16 Block IN ??? So will it be F-16s Without AESA or With AESA as F-18s under MMRCA will already will have an AESA Radar ????

 

[MST]

I think it would be a good thing to cancel such an expensive upgrade and increase the MMRCA numbers to 200 and split it into two. One EF and get another stike platform either Rafale or F/A 18

 

[pbabu266]

We had done trials of all the fighters involved in MRCA in Leh. Any fighter that passed the test could be used instead..

No need to continue with old jets even if it has proved its mettle in the past.. This is the age of 5Th Gen.. The faster we move to the trend , the better we get.

Also look at the cost factor.. its huge.. 2 squadrons of Rafale is a good choice .. it can deliver even nukes.

Yes BENNY, i do agree with you.

 

[Markus]

So we are only going to feed Sarkozy with a nuclear deal when he comes here this month.??

Maybe.

Lets see what happens.

But Rafale is one cracker of a machine to have.