India Ministry of Defense |
- Rumor N°1 : Dassault bid would be only marginally lower, meaning that it will take some time to find out the best offer including all parameters.
- Rumor N°2 : both bids would be above the initial 42,000 Crore ($10 billions) estimate of the Indian MOD stated in 2007. That's not really a surprise but, now, some sources are talking about $20 billions which is a huge increase.
- Rumor N°3 : A scheduled meeting, on the sidelines of the G20, between French president Sarkozy and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan have been cancelled and the cause could be related to the MMRCA and the opening of the bids (well, this one sounds very unlikely).
livemint.com
www.tribuneindia.com
dailypioneer.com
livefist.blogspot.com
indiatoday.intoday.in (video report)
Rumour Number 3 is more or less baseless. The French government has far more serious headaches to deal with (Greece/Eurozone debt) than a 20billion dollar defense deal. Any MMRCA angle to a planned meeting would have created a ruckus with the other Eurofighter member states and the Indian government played it safe.
ReplyDeleteIf you ask me, the narrow price difference and timeframe for assessing costs means things are proceeding as planned since the April shortlist-however, that doesn't mean either contender has a clear advantage.
I agree
ReplyDeleteR No.1 - If the bids doesnt ve a big difference, then eurofighter may clinch it with 5th partner offer ....as both aircrafts did admirably well in libya.
ReplyDeleteR No.- This can be true as both aircrafts are most expensive out of 6 first included. but will not have much effect on choosing the winner.
R No. 3- i agree with justin