Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Livefist: India Chooses The Rafale

Livefist: India Chooses The Rafale: The Indian government has declared the Dassault Rafale the lowest bidder in the Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (M-MRCA) competition...

I can't resist to reproduce here the complete post of Indian Defense journalist Shiv Aroor on Livefist as it was his tweet that brought the good news to my ears. Congratulation to India, the IAF and Dassault ! 

Shiv in the Rafale during Aero India, Jan 2011

It's the Rafale! The Indian government has declared the Dassault Rafale the lowest bidder in the Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (M-MRCA) competition, signalling its prospective victory in a monumental competition that has spanned six years. The story broke first on Livefist. While a letter of intent (LoI) was issued to Dassault Aviation today, a final contract will be signed contingent on successful negotiations by March (or later) this year. EADS Cassidian has been informed of the government's decision and is likely to receive further information in the days ahead on how the selection was made. The decision is a big blow to the EADS campaign, considering how much they'd thrown at winning this one.

When and if the deal is finally signed, it will be Dassault's first export contract for the Rafale and the single largest it has ever participated in. I only say "if" because there is still work left before contract signature. But this is, by far, the closest Dassault has gone to clinching an order for the Rafale. The Rafale pips the Eurofighter Typhoon for what is by far India's largest aerospace contract and one of the most keenly tracked in recent aerospace contracting.

Not to crow or anything, but I happen to be the only Indian journalist who has flown in the Rafale. Here's my account of that amazing ride. Only if you must though :)

13 comments:

  1. rafale deserved it and congrats for first sale

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congrats France, we Indian's hope Dassault not spoil things in up coming contract negotiations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agree, congrats for both India and France.
      hope to see more collaboration in the near future.

      Delete
  3. FINALLY!!!!!
    Dassault is back!
    It was about time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Finally! What a good news. Well deserved victory for an amazing plane.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congratulations to Dassault and France for this victory. With this I'm sure that UAE, Qatar and Kuwait will choose the Rafale aswell.

    ReplyDelete
  6. kool...its an amazing plane and good deal for us. Some credit must be given to our(Indian) government to withstand such a huge pressure USA to buy there planes...and the frst country to choose fighter jet other than US ones when US jets are in competition ...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kovy, please liven up this post a bit with a picture.

    Maybe:
    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_o_no4M2xEPY/TTK3Hx2gReI/AAAAAAAAMHE/tsP_at30cXE/s400/Rafale_IAF.jpg
    or
    http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/148/rafaleiaf.jpg/
    or
    http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/9346/39596925691242207661034.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sorry can't do it right now as I'm still in office
    Will do it to night

    ReplyDelete
  9. my fav. jet!!! ❤ from India!!!

    ReplyDelete