Six tough fighters vie for IAF pie

NEW DELHI: The purchase of 126 Multi-role Combat Aircraft for the Indian Air Force is one of the most complex defence contracts the country has ever undertaken.

Aggressive Russians and French fighter manufacturers, for the first time, are taking on formidable US bids and curiously, none of them are able to stand up to the Swedish fighter Gripen in terms of its new technologies.

On Monday on the eve of the biannual defence exhibition in New Delhi, the race for the contract, estimated to be worth Rs 30,000 crore, got more complicated. A consortium is set to enter the fray with Europe’s most ambitious fighter programme ever.

Now the line-up seeking the massive IAF pie is almost certain to look like this: the US companies Lockheed-Martin and Boeing pushing their fighters F-16 and F/A-18 respectively, the French peddling their Mirage-2000, Sweden with Gripen fighter, and now the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Further, indications are that the French may further add to the competition by pushing Rafale fighter into the fray.

There isn’t a more intensely fought defence contract in Indian memory. The competition is not only reflective of the mammoth size of the contract but also the realities of a post-Cold War world and India’s new found friendship with the US.

The Eurofighter is a joint effort of aviation companies from UK, Germany, Spain and Italy and this ambitious trans-European fighter is a prestigious project for all the four nations.

If Rafale also joins the fray, the IAF would have six fighters, each one with a strong diplomatic backing and equally amazing technological abilities, to choose from.