@ tonker : Is your question serious? :confused:

@ Ozymandias : Nice try, but I still smell a bit of google translate :cool:
And I do prefer belgian beers. No offense, though. ;)

Cheers
AZR

India- Rafale and Eurofighter asked to extend bids
 

Thursday, 28. April 2011

The Hindu, India - NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Defence on Wednesday asked European consortium's Eurofighter and French Dassault's Rafale to extend the commercial bids for the 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft that are due to expire on Thursday.


The move could be interpreted as ‘down selection' from six competitors in the Rs. 45,000- crore deal that is expected to be finalised this fiscal.

Sources in the government told The Hindu that the Ministry despatched the letter, based on the Technical Evaluation Committee's report.

The commercial bids, which were re-submitted last year by the competitors, need to be extended. Once the bids are opened, the cost negotiation committee would start work.

Offset clause

The calculation would also have to factor in the steep offset clause as determined by the Defence Procurement Policy.

As per the terms of the deal, the competitors would have to show that they have the requisite tie-ups to fulfil the 50-per cent offset clause, which means that half of the value of the deal would have be sourced from Indian companies.

The Indian Air Force had handed over its report to the Ministry last year after rigorous and
extensive flight evaluation trials of the six fighter planes bidding for the deal.

Besides Eurofighter and Rafale, the others in the race are American companies Lockheed Martin (F-16IN Super Viper) and Boeing (F/A-18 Super Hornet), Swedish SAAB Gripen NG and Russian Mikoyan MiG35.

The sources said the Ministry's team undertook an elaborate exercise to determine the offset obligations of the competitors, and once the task was complete, the next stage would be determined on the basis of the technical evaluation.

Typhoon v Rafale : The answer coming soon
 

Indian Air Force chooses Rafale and Typhoon for final procurement decision -

BBC News - India chooses European fighters over US rivals

Key Deficiencies of Rafale Design
 

To reach the potential capabilities of Typhoon, Rafale requires a couple of minor alterations:

1) More powerful engines (say some extra 20% thrust)

2) A new radar (an active e-scan to replace the poor performing passive e-scan)

Both items have been requested by the UAE, as they have realised pretty quickly the key shortcomings of the French design.
An AESA radar should be available from 2012, but a new engine is still far away, if it will ever come.
Typhoon will eventually re-establish its superiority in radar performance with the new AESA radar due around 2015. This will be maintained going forward, as Typhoon´s antenna diameter is bigger than Rafale´s and thus can house more receive/transmit modules. Size matters!

For a prospective buyer considering the two jets one can summarise that Rafale will never be able to reach Typhoon´s air-to-air capabilities (aerodynamics and sensors in particular), whereas Typhoon will easily match Rafale´s air-to-surface roles. Just a matter of time and customer´s requests.

Another major difference with Typhoon (and most modern fighters) is the lack of towed decoys, which have proved very effective in enhancing the platform survivability.

Some of the reasons the original five-nation European Fighter went two separate ways are evident from what said above:

1) French strong bias towards air-to-ground vs Eurofighter optimisation on air superiority
2) French insistence on an electronic scan radar whose technology was flawed (and lack of appreciation of antenna size)
3) French insistence on their national engine (underpowered)
Last but not least the governance issue (French leadership of the project).

Quote"None taken, I enjoy them myself on occasion. Doesn't translate into exceptional Belgian fighter aircraft though, does it?"

No, but we DO have the best NATO fighter Pilots:E:}

Hi all, if someone here is curious how Eurofighter-bashing looks like, visit Eurofighter vs Rafale on defenceforumindia.com. There you got THE french military aviation expert who is all knowing to such an extent that he doesn't even require Dassault brochures, as Archimedes described it ;) Look out for "Armand"!