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Sunday, September 9, 2012

MMRCA, Contract for the 126 Rafale to be signed within 2 months ?

After a month of rumors stating that the Rafale deal in India was in very bad shape, a senior Indian Air Force official is denying that the exclusive negociations with Dassault could be canceled. Furthermore, he said that the contract could be signed within 1 or 2 months :

The Economic Times
[...] Bangalore, Sept 8 (PTI): India plans to sign the USD 11 billion MMRCA(Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) deal with French Rafale by the end of this month-end or next month, a senior Indian Air Force official said today.

"I find no reason why it shouldn't be signed by the end of this month or next month", Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Training Command, IAF, Air Marshal Rajinder Singh told PTI here.

He indicated that negotiations are currently on with regard to pricing for the 126-aircraft deal. "There is money....this thing here and there (pricing being finalised)".

The Air Marshal admitted to "some problems" (on pricing) but asserted that it's not unusual in such big deals. "It should come through", he said, adding that the first aircraft under the MMRCA deal would start "flowing in" in 2017.

The Air Marshal dismissed reports quoting Russian and German officials who had claimed that the deal is not final yet and that it's still up in the air.

"Nothing of that sort", he said, pointing out India had already declared the lowest bidder -- Rafale -- for the MMRCA deal.
[...]


In its last issue published on September 7th, Air & Cosmos magazine reveals that more than half of the negociation points would have been already validated by the Contract Negociation Commity.

In June, HAL also announced that a $108 millions investment in 2 Rafale production facilities (Airframe and engine) has been cleared.

Also read
MBCTV report

Edit : Indian Air Force chief N.A.K Browne has indicated on September 20, that the negociations are on schedule and that the contract will be signed before March 2013 (end of the Indian fiscal year).
Aviationweek.com

2 comments:

  1. Seal the deal soon; it will take another 2-3 years to reach initial combat capability.

    ReplyDelete