Will urge India to reconsider Dassault Rafale fighter deal: British Prime M

[Major Sam]

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday that India's decision to choose France's Dassault Aviation over Eurofighter as preferred bidder for a $15 billion war plane contract was disappointing and he would urge India to reconsider.

"Of course I will do everything I can, as I have already, to encourage the Indians to look at Typhoon (Eurofighter) because I think it is such a good aircraft," Cameron told parliament.

"The decision is obviously disappointing but it is about who the Indians have assessed as making the lowest bid and therefore asked to enter into further negotiations. They have not yet awarded the contract," he added.

He said he did not expect any job losses in Britain as a result of the decision and said "it doesn't rule out Typhoon for India."

"We must go on making the case. This (Eurofighter) is a superb aircraft with far better capabilities than Rafale and we will try and encourage the Indians to take that view," he added.

Rafale, made by Dassault, emerged on Tuesday as preferred bidder in the contest to supply India with 126 warplanes.

While exclusive talks are not a guarantee of sale, they deal a probable knockout blow to Rafale's chief rival in India, the Eurofighter Typhoon, a fighter plane developed by a consortium of four European aviation companies --the German and Spanish branches of EADS, Britain's BAE Systems and Italy's Finmeccanica.

Cameron's spokesman said Britain would look very carefully at why India took the decision to make Dassault the preferred bidder. "We will want to learn from that," he told reporters.

Talks between France and India over the fighter jet sale should be wrapped up within six to nine months, French government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse said on Wednesday.


Will urge India to reconsider Dassault Rafale fighter deal: British Prime Minister David Cameron - The Times of India

 

[Yaduveer]

Ohh man , This is just 10billion $ ..it seems they make question of life and death.
Well.. India needs an investment of 1 trillion $ in infrastructure which will have huge returns .. Cameroon try your luck in this project.

 

[Jade]

It has already been posted

 

[Machoman]

What he can do for Indians to change their mind?

 

[Tshering22]

What he can do for Indians to change their mind?

EADS still gets some revenues as it has 46% stake in Dassault. Typhoons are just too expensive for a 4.5++ gen jet despite securing so many orders.

 

[joekrish]

No hard feelings, we buy what suits us best.

 

[hatyogi]

There is a good reason why India has decided in favor of Rafale.
Let me do a analysis on the lines that the Indian Defence think tanks must have followed.

First and foremost the Dassault Rafale is french, the only major European power not influenced by USA in sanctioning India in the past occassions. So f18 and f16 lose marks for non reliablity.

Secondly Rafale and Typhoon were the only aircraft offered that were latest designs. The f16 and f18 bieng from the 1970s whereas Grippen is somewhat a mix of new and old.

Thirdly Rafale is also available in a naval version something that Euro Typhoon still lacks. The Typhoon naval version is yet under developement. Rafale naval version on the other hand is ready, tested and working.

Fourthly Indians have long been using french birds, so there is a kind of familiarity with the french systems. F16 and f 18 are good birds but they would have required a very costly maintainance infrtasrtucture anew.

Fifthly compared to other aircraft in MMRCA race Rafale best suits the role it is being bought for.

Note that Indians need MMRCA i.e. a medium multi role aircraft to fill the gap between LCA and the MKI flankers and to replace the now outdated mig 21 bisons. They need something for the next 40 or 50 years. Considering this the grippen, f 16 and f18 lose the race. However good they may be these planes would be museum artifacts in the next 10 years.

Now that leaves us with Ef Typhoon and the Rafale. Both comparable birds with somewhat the same capabilities.
Here Rafale wins the race due to above reason i.e. its naval version is available and that there are fewer issues with the TOT.