India Seeks $ 15 Billion Fighter Jets in World՚s Largest Deal
Which Jets Would be Bought?
Multiple parameters would be used by Air Force to evaluate various fighter jets.
Manufacturers like SAAB of Sweden, Lockheed Martin & Boeing of US, Dassault of France, MiG of Russia & European consortium Eurofighter are expected to compete.
Made in India: Details of the Deal
Around 75% of aircraft will be single-seat ones. IAF intends to use aircraft as day & night -capable, all-weather, multi-role combat aircraft.
15% of aircraft will be bought in flyaway state, & rest will have to be made locally.
85% will have to be made in India by Strategic Partner⟋Indian Production Agency.
1st aircraft must be delivered within 3 years of signing contract. The request for information is open until July.
New process to acquire jets effectively replaces still-born Medium Multi-role Combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal which Air Force ultimately scrapped when govt. entered into direct deal w⟋France to acquire 36 Rafale jets.
Latest Technologies
Air Force is not willing to compromise on technology or capability that it wants to acquire.
New jets should come equipped w⟋state of the art avionics, ideally “fly in excess of 10 hour w⟋Air to Air Refuelling (AAR) , & be able to operate from high-altitude air-fields such as Leh” .
Radar should ideally have capability to carry out simultaneous Air-to-Air & Air-to-Surface operation.
India is interested in cutting-edge Gallium Nitride (GaN) based technology being used in electronically scanned phased array radar of fighter.