M-MRCA Deal: Introduction

Last August India released the Request For Proposal(RFP) to replace Indian Air Force’s aging fleet MiG-21 and Mig-23. As per plan, India will acquire 126 new generation Multi-role Combat aircrafts and will also raise 2 supplementary squads of LCA Tejas. The RFP has already raised the temperature in international arms market and competitors are pitching in with new technologies, new support system and new weapon configurations to woo Indian Air Force.This deal is the biggest arms deal since early 1990's.The deal which started to seek and aquire light weight fighters to replace Mig-21 frontline fighters has changed considerably, suggesting the change in india's operational needs and refined demand over high tech military technology.The selected aircraft along with Sukhoi-30MKI and LCA tejas will make up the main fighter squads of IAF. The main competitors for this deal are F-16 Falcon from Lockheed Martin, F-18 Super Hornet from Boeing, Grippen from SAAB, Eurofighter Typhoon from EADS, Rafale from Dassault Aviation and Mig-35 from Mikoyan Gurevich. IAF is fourth largest air force in the world and it is a widely accepted fact that the combat doctrines and operational parameters of IAF are the toughest to match. It is also by the fact that the operational area of IAF ranges from Himalayan ranges to Thar desert and from Bay of Bengal to Rann Of Kutch. It is a time when India is aggressively trying to influence issues on global platform and seeking a “Strategic-Military reach” to deal with "out-of-area" contingencies.

This RFP is quite late and it's because of good amount of reasons.The change in Operational needs by the air force, the changes of clauses in the "Industrial Offset Rules", and the option to order 3 more squadrons(approx. 64 aircrafts...That brings the number close to 180-190). This deal will also pave the way for Navy's Fighter aircraft deal to arm the Indigenous aircraft carrier.Ther's an interesting fact that only 2 aicrafts can hold a good follow up for the navy deal-F/A-18 Super Hornet and Dassault Rafale. It will take good amount of time to completely evaluate these aircrafts in “IAF style”. Many online communities are cooking the discussion about this deal and I had made huge amount of contributions in orkut communities and defence column communities. But things are better sketchy now so I thought of putting a assessment of each aircraft in my blog.

I Will write about each type of aircraft which is competing for the deal.
And You are free to comment .

About The Author

Iam a Lifestyle Photographer, SEO Consultant and Database expert.I studied Biological Engineering at Amity University.I grew up in India,Can't mention a single area here.. My family was like a japanese bagpacker. Roamed to many indian cities.I have several ideas of what I might do with myself in this lifeworld. Although I feel very much a part of this world, I spend a lot of time questioning it. That's the social scientist in me.People say i am full of attitude and i think that's good.I'm idealistic and maybe naive, but at this point in time I can't imagine living any other way.I have two business ventures- XpressoStill and OptSEO.Xpressostill is a lifestyle photography venture which i started in early 2010.Currently it has two portfolios for wedding photography and travel photography.OptSEO is a new idea, atleast for me. OptSEO is about managing e ventures. My main objective is to try to create,develop and execute a cost effective program to maximize the communication between enterprises and their customers and generate high quality sales inquiries. And if that is not enough..Iam also training to become a pro deep-sea diver. You Can write to me at rakesh.mahato@live.com

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