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Hefty Rs 42,000 crore bill for combat aircraft may rise




I am all in support of F-35A if the delivery starts in 2016. No need to buy pricey European Junks,Which no one is happy about. No one likes Rafale except themselves and Eurofighter's future also seems to be not so bright. We can get a gen. ahead plane in almost same price.
With F-35 we will have assured supply of spare parts and upgrades.

126 of these will create havoc in battlefield. A true omnirole fighter made to rule the sky and deliver the payload without getting detected.

AIR_F-35A_AA-1_Landing_lg.jpg

And what about the following points:-
1. ToT, which was still not clear from US govt for even F-16 & F-18, Do you think ToT will be provided for F-35, which will be prime fighter jet for US forces for next 3-4 decades???
2. Price factor, Flyaway cost for F-35 will not be less than 130-140 million dollor
3. Delivery dates, which are still not clear. US & other partner countries are in the list before any new country who try to buy these jets.
4. What abt EFT & Rafael who cleared for next round of selection process and commercial bids are about to be opened by MoD in next few days.
Wishes are wishes buddy but I donot think there are any chances for F-35 for MRCA deal.
 
And what about the following points:-
1. ToT, which was still not clear from US govt for even F-16 & F-18, Do you think ToT will be provided for F-35, which will be prime fighter jet for US forces for next 3-4 decades???
2. Price factor, Flyaway cost for F-35 will not be less than 130-140 million dollor
3. Delivery dates, which are still not clear. US & other partner countries are in the list before any new country who try to buy these jets.
4. What abt EFT & Rafael who cleared for next round of selection process and commercial bids are about to be opened by MoD in next few days.
Wishes are wishes buddy but I donot think there are any chances for F-35 for MRCA deal.

I believe Saurav talked about F 35 under the assumption that due to the anticipated benchmark price from MOD, MMRCA deal might eventually get scrapped and that the F 35 might cost around $70 million. But your points 1 & 3 are perfectly valid as far as I am concerned.
 
India given choice to pioneer naval Typhoon jet


LONDON/NEW DELHI: In anticipation of winning the Indian Air Force's $10.4 billion tender for 126 combat jets, European consortium EADS has offered India a choice to pioneer a project for a naval version of the Eurofighter Typhoon that is in the fray in what is being described as the "mother of all defence deals".

Typhoon's competitor in the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) tender, the French firm Dassault's Rafale, already has a naval version that is operational on France's lone nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.

Officials of BAE Systems, one of the four partner companies in EADS for the Typhoon programme, told IANS during a visit to their RAF Warton production facility in Britain recently that India can exercise the choice of being a partner nation and leading the programme for the carrier-borne version of the aircraft if it wins the MMRCA tender. At present, Britain, Italy, Spain and Germany are partners in the Typhoon programme.
According to the BAE Systems officials, the Typhoon, which is a shore-based combat jet, has the potential to be a carrier-borne aircraft, provided a few modifications are made to the aircraft itself, essentially in a ski-jump take-off configuration due to the thrust-vectoring 90 kN (kilo Newton) engine that powers it.
Among the changes, it identifies strengthening of the undercarriage of the aircraft to assist in hard landings on a carrier's deck, fitting a carrier hook for arrested landings, and a good paint coating to help it withstand the vagaries of nature at sea.
The choice of the Typhoon for the Indian Navy the officials said, will complement the experience of operating the British Sea Harrier vertical-landing carrier-borne aircraft on board its lone aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, for over two decades now. Of the nearly 30 Harriers India had got for INS Viraat, only about 10 are left in service, with the rest lost in air crashes.
The offer has been made keeping in mind the Indian Navy's request for information issued in 2009. But the Indian Navy itself is not very amused with the offer.
First, according to officials, the Indian Navy plans to induct the Russian-built Admiral Gorshkov or INS Vikramaditya in the next couple of years. This warship will deploy Russian MiG-29K naval fighter jets and for this, the vessel is being reconfigured into a ski-jump take-off but arrested landing (STOBAR) mode at the Sevmash shipyard in Russia.
The same aircraft will be operated from the flight deck of India's indigenous aircraft carrier, under construction at the Cochin Shipyard, when it is inducted in the middle of this decade. Hence the Indian Navy has placed a total order for 45 MiG-29Ks for the two carriers from Russia.
For the future, the navy wants the Defence Research and Development Organisation's Tejas light combat aircraft's naval variant to fructify. If it does, then it may be the future carrier-borne aircraft of the navy for its two more indigenous aircraft carriers planned for construction at the Cochin Shipyard. But that decision is a long shot as it stands today, according to senior naval aviation officers.
But here is where the EADS, and BAE Systems in particular, is hopeful and is pitching the Typhoons as a powerful STOBAR platform for the future indigenous aircraft carriers of India.


India given choice to pioneer naval Typhoon jet | EADS | | The New Indian Express
 
India given choice to pioneer naval Typhoon jet


LONDON/NEW DELHI: In anticipation of winning the Indian Air Force's $10.4 billion tender for 126 combat jets, European consortium EADS has offered India a choice to pioneer a project for a naval version of the Eurofighter Typhoon that is in the fray in what is being described as the "mother of all defence deals".

Typhoon's competitor in the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) tender, the French firm Dassault's Rafale, already has a naval version that is operational on France's lone nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.

Officials of BAE Systems, one of the four partner companies in EADS for the Typhoon programme, told IANS during a visit to their RAF Warton production facility in Britain recently that India can exercise the choice of being a partner nation and leading the programme for the carrier-borne version of the aircraft if it wins the MMRCA tender. At present, Britain, Italy, Spain and Germany are partners in the Typhoon programme.
According to the BAE Systems officials, the Typhoon, which is a shore-based combat jet, has the potential to be a carrier-borne aircraft, provided a few modifications are made to the aircraft itself, essentially in a ski-jump take-off configuration due to the thrust-vectoring 90 kN (kilo Newton) engine that powers it.
Among the changes, it identifies strengthening of the undercarriage of the aircraft to assist in hard landings on a carrier's deck, fitting a carrier hook for arrested landings, and a good paint coating to help it withstand the vagaries of nature at sea.
The choice of the Typhoon for the Indian Navy the officials said, will complement the experience of operating the British Sea Harrier vertical-landing carrier-borne aircraft on board its lone aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, for over two decades now. Of the nearly 30 Harriers India had got for INS Viraat, only about 10 are left in service, with the rest lost in air crashes.
The offer has been made keeping in mind the Indian Navy's request for information issued in 2009. But the Indian Navy itself is not very amused with the offer.
First, according to officials, the Indian Navy plans to induct the Russian-built Admiral Gorshkov or INS Vikramaditya in the next couple of years. This warship will deploy Russian MiG-29K naval fighter jets and for this, the vessel is being reconfigured into a ski-jump take-off but arrested landing (STOBAR) mode at the Sevmash shipyard in Russia.
The same aircraft will be operated from the flight deck of India's indigenous aircraft carrier, under construction at the Cochin Shipyard, when it is inducted in the middle of this decade. Hence the Indian Navy has placed a total order for 45 MiG-29Ks for the two carriers from Russia.
For the future, the navy wants the Defence Research and Development Organisation's Tejas light combat aircraft's naval variant to fructify. If it does, then it may be the future carrier-borne aircraft of the navy for its two more indigenous aircraft carriers planned for construction at the Cochin Shipyard. But that decision is a long shot as it stands today, according to senior naval aviation officers.
But here is where the EADS, and BAE Systems in particular, is hopeful and is pitching the Typhoons as a powerful STOBAR platform for the future indigenous aircraft carriers of India.


India given choice to pioneer naval Typhoon jet | EADS | | The New Indian Express
 
India given choice to pioneer naval Typhoon jet

They"generously" giving us the participation, or even the lead in the development of an Eurofighter, that nobody else wants and where they don't have to pay for. :devil:
 
^^^
Yeah they wanna build this fighter with our money and then sell it in world market.
 
For years, India's proposed purchase of 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) -- the world's largest overseas fighter buy for which the Typhoon, built by Eurofighter GmbH; and the Rafale, developed by French vendor Dassault, remain in contention --- has been valued at Rs 42,000 crore, almost US $10 billion.

Now that valuation is set to rise dramatically, as the Ministry of Defence carries out a process called benchmarking.

Benchmarking is the crucial process of estimating the fair price for any purchase, and is completed before the MoD opens the price bids for any tender.

This is done by an MoD committee which scrutinises similar tenders worldwide, especially recent sales, to arrive at a comparable --- or as the name suggests, a benchmark --- price.

If all the vendors' bids emerge significantly higher than the benchmark, the tender is cancelled and the process begun afresh.
For example, if the MoD committee that is currently benchmarking the MMRCA concludes that Rs 42,000 crore is a decade-old estimation that should be increased due to inflation by 50 per cent, the benchmark for that contract will be pegged at Rs 63,000 crore.

When the Eurofighter's and Dassault's bids are opened, if both turn out to be notably higher, the MoD will scrap the MMRCA tender.

On the other hand, if the lower bid is less than or approximates the benchmark, that bid will be accepted.

The benchmark figure has become crucial for the Typhoon and Rafale, which are acknowledged as the most expensive of the six fighters that competed for the IAF's order.
Watching from the sidelines and hoping that the procurement falls through are the four aircraft vendors who were eliminated from the MMRCA contest in April: Russia's MiG; Sweden's Saab; and American companies, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Two of those vendors have told Business Standard that they believe that Eurofighter's and Dassault's quotes will be far higher than the benchmark.

If they are correct, the long process of obtaining sanctions, tendering, evaluations and field trials will have been fruitless.

One eliminated contestant sources the Rafale's price from the Brazilian media, which has keenly followed the contest between Dassault, Saab and Boeing to sell 36 fighters to the Brazilian Air Force.
A detailed story in the Sao Paulo-based daily, Folha de S Paulo, pegs the Rafale bid at US $6.2 billion (plus another US $4 billion for maintenance over the next 30 years, according to the terms of the Brazilian tender).

Quoting French sources, the daily reports that the $6.2 billion bid is a discounted price, brought down from $8.2 billion after intense Brazilian pressure on Paris. Extrapolating these figures onto the Indian contract, Dassault's quote for 126 MMRCAs could be as much as $20 billion, twice the initially estimated figure.

Aerospace industry estimations put the cost of the Eurofighter Typhoon about 25 per cent higher than the Rafale. That would put the cost of 126 Typhoons at about $25 billion.

The Indian price bids, however, involve a different calculation. The South Block tender demands price quotes on a "life-cycle" basis, a complex and detailed format that factors in the cost of 126 fighters over their estimated service life of 40 years.
Bids are broken down into seven heads --- M-1 to M-7 --- and include the fly-away cost of the fighter; cost of spare parts; operating costs; cost of inspections and maintenance; transfer of technology; and training expenses. The final figure, M-8, is the overall cost, reached by adding up M-1 to M-7.

Executives from Rafale and Eurofighter agree that Rs 42,000 crore is an outdated price and that the survival of the MMRCA contract now depends upon how much higher the MoD is willing to raise the benchmark.

"Rs 42,000 crore was a price estimated a decade ago, and that was for a smaller, single-engine fighter. When you factor inflation, and the fact that India is now buying a heavy, twin-engine fighter, naturally the price will be much higher," says a senior executive from one of the vendor companies.

A keen watcher of these developments is Lockheed Martin, whose F-16IN Super Viper was rejected by the IAF. A visiting Lockheed Martin executive told Business Standard that the fifth-generation F-35 Lightening II would become a real option for India if the MMRCA procurement was scrapped.
"We did not offer the F-35 for the MMRCA contract because it exceeded the Indian specifications; the fighter was not yet ready for the kind of flight testing specified in the tender; and because the US government had not yet approved it for release to India to include transfer of technology as specified in the RfP," said Orville Prins, Lockheed Martin's Vice President for Business Development.

Six years down the line, these conditions have changed. Prins now points out that, with Lockheed Martin set to build 20 fighters per month, i.e. 240 per year, "we could be in a position to supply India with its first F-35s by 2016, contingent upon many additional factors, including US governmental approval that would affect this timing."

Asked for the cost of the F-35, Lockheed Martin estimates it "in the mid-60s", i.e. somewhere between $60-70 million for the conventional version of the fighter.

This would be the cost of a full-up, operational configuration with all the high-tech sensors that are integrated internally in a 5th generation, stealthy aircraft. Added to this cost would be the added expenses of training, technology transfer (ToT), manufacturing infrastructure, etc, which would significantly raise the overall cost of buying 126 F-35s.
Mother of all weapon deals is set to get costlier - Rediff.com News
 
For years, India's proposed purchase of 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) -- the world's largest overseas fighter buy for which the Typhoon, built by Eurofighter GmbH; and the Rafale, developed by French vendor Dassault, remain in contention --- has been valued at Rs 42,000 crore, almost US $10 billion.

Now that valuation is set to rise dramatically, as the Ministry of Defence carries out a process called benchmarking.

Benchmarking is the crucial process of estimating the fair price for any purchase, and is completed before the MoD opens the price bids for any tender.

This is done by an MoD committee which scrutinises similar tenders worldwide, especially recent sales, to arrive at a comparable --- or as the name suggests, a benchmark --- price.

If all the vendors' bids emerge significantly higher than the benchmark, the tender is cancelled and the process begun afresh.
For example, if the MoD committee that is currently benchmarking the MMRCA concludes that Rs 42,000 crore is a decade-old estimation that should be increased due to inflation by 50 per cent, the benchmark for that contract will be pegged at Rs 63,000 crore.

When the Eurofighter's and Dassault's bids are opened, if both turn out to be notably higher, the MoD will scrap the MMRCA tender.

On the other hand, if the lower bid is less than or approximates the benchmark, that bid will be accepted.

The benchmark figure has become crucial for the Typhoon and Rafale, which are acknowledged as the most expensive of the six fighters that competed for the IAF's order.
Watching from the sidelines and hoping that the procurement falls through are the four aircraft vendors who were eliminated from the MMRCA contest in April: Russia's MiG; Sweden's Saab; and American companies, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Two of those vendors have told Business Standard that they believe that Eurofighter's and Dassault's quotes will be far higher than the benchmark.

If they are correct, the long process of obtaining sanctions, tendering, evaluations and field trials will have been fruitless.

One eliminated contestant sources the Rafale's price from the Brazilian media, which has keenly followed the contest between Dassault, Saab and Boeing to sell 36 fighters to the Brazilian Air Force.
A detailed story in the Sao Paulo-based daily, Folha de S Paulo, pegs the Rafale bid at US $6.2 billion (plus another US $4 billion for maintenance over the next 30 years, according to the terms of the Brazilian tender).

Quoting French sources, the daily reports that the $6.2 billion bid is a discounted price, brought down from $8.2 billion after intense Brazilian pressure on Paris. Extrapolating these figures onto the Indian contract, Dassault's quote for 126 MMRCAs could be as much as $20 billion, twice the initially estimated figure.

Aerospace industry estimations put the cost of the Eurofighter Typhoon about 25 per cent higher than the Rafale. That would put the cost of 126 Typhoons at about $25 billion.

The Indian price bids, however, involve a different calculation. The South Block tender demands price quotes on a "life-cycle" basis, a complex and detailed format that factors in the cost of 126 fighters over their estimated service life of 40 years.
Bids are broken down into seven heads --- M-1 to M-7 --- and include the fly-away cost of the fighter; cost of spare parts; operating costs; cost of inspections and maintenance; transfer of technology; and training expenses. The final figure, M-8, is the overall cost, reached by adding up M-1 to M-7.

Executives from Rafale and Eurofighter agree that Rs 42,000 crore is an outdated price and that the survival of the MMRCA contract now depends upon how much higher the MoD is willing to raise the benchmark.

"Rs 42,000 crore was a price estimated a decade ago, and that was for a smaller, single-engine fighter. When you factor inflation, and the fact that India is now buying a heavy, twin-engine fighter, naturally the price will be much higher," says a senior executive from one of the vendor companies.

A keen watcher of these developments is Lockheed Martin, whose F-16IN Super Viper was rejected by the IAF. A visiting Lockheed Martin executive told Business Standard that the fifth-generation F-35 Lightening II would become a real option for India if the MMRCA procurement was scrapped.
"We did not offer the F-35 for the MMRCA contract because it exceeded the Indian specifications; the fighter was not yet ready for the kind of flight testing specified in the tender; and because the US government had not yet approved it for release to India to include transfer of technology as specified in the RfP," said Orville Prins, Lockheed Martin's Vice President for Business Development.

Six years down the line, these conditions have changed. Prins now points out that, with Lockheed Martin set to build 20 fighters per month, i.e. 240 per year, "we could be in a position to supply India with its first F-35s by 2016, contingent upon many additional factors, including US governmental approval that would affect this timing."

Asked for the cost of the F-35, Lockheed Martin estimates it "in the mid-60s", i.e. somewhere between $60-70 million for the conventional version of the fighter.

This would be the cost of a full-up, operational configuration with all the high-tech sensors that are integrated internally in a 5th generation, stealthy aircraft. Added to this cost would be the added expenses of training, technology transfer (ToT), manufacturing infrastructure, etc, which would significantly raise the overall cost of buying 126 F-35s.
Mother of all weapon deals is set to get costlier - Rediff.com News
 
too much Typhoon news^^
time to enjoy some Rafale! lol

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rafale will come with full ToT
Paris. French aircraft maker Dassault says that its Rafale would come with full technology transfers to India.
img_1120.jpg


Executive Vice President International Eric Trappier told India Strategic that Dassault was hopeful of winning the Indian Air Force (IAF) competition for 126-plus Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) and that the company would have no hesitation in transferring the “best onboard technologies, both for IAF and Indian Navy if the latter opted for it also for its future aircraft carriers.”
He and his team were in regular touch with the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD), and like the other rival in the MMRCA competition, he was waiting for the commercial bids to open. He was sure, he said, that Rafale would be economical and cheaper than the competition in the short and long run. “We have had a long relationship with India spanning 50 years and we want this to be longer.”
Trappier was also hopeful of the Mirage 2000 upgrade contract to be signed soon. Although most of the upgradation would be done by the technology company Thales, the aircraft were originally sold by Dassault, which now has a substantial stake in Thales.
After the upgradation, the Mirage 2000 would be as good as new Mirage 2005 aircraft, possibly with some better technologies than before.
Thales is providing Electronic Warfare (EW) suites, combat radars, displays, helmet mounted cueing systems and some of the weapons for both the Mirage and Rafale. The latter though would have the advantage of modern AESA radars and possibly Ultra Violet or Infra Red Search and Track (UV or IR ST) systems for well Beyond the Visual Range (BVR) engagement and neutralization of hostile targets.
img_1120i.jpg

These systems would be compatible with most of the precision weapons.
On offer is also the latest Air to Air Meteor missile developed by MBDA.
Rafale was also stated to have lower radar signature due to the integration of its engine intakes with the body. “If you look at it from the front, it is like a bird with natural contours, not extruding inlets.” And the aircraft would have less fuel consumption than others, which would both be economical and strategic in war time, when fuel supplies are invariably in short supplies.
Trappier described the Rafale as an omni role fighter, and said that it was the only aircraft already operating both from land and sea and that its capabilities had been demonstrated both to the IAF and Indian Navy. France’s only aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle, had done exercises with the Indian Navy and also visited Mumbai recently.
Asked about the combat radars and weapons, he pointed out that Dassault’s associate company Thales had already developed and validated the RBE2 AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar and “it would be on board the aircraft ordered by India well in time.”
In fact, there would be other systems and weapons which would also be delivered to the IAF to its satisfaction.
Asked about reports that some of the weapons were available only with the US companies, like the Raytheon High Speed Anti Radiation Missile (HARM), and that even if a company was willing to sell them, the approval would have to still from the US Government, Trappier said that he was hopeful that there would be no problem.
Notably, all the six contestants in the MMRCA fray had promised to meet all the IAF requirements.
There would have to be some diplomatic intervention perhaps at a later stage between the winner and its country/ countries of manufacture as well as the US to secure this arrangement. Maybe India’s goodwill will play a role irrespective of which of the two finalists bags the world’s biggest aircraft order yet.
Indications are that New Delhi would order nearly 200 aircraft, 126 as per the tender, and 63 mentioned in the option clause.
And perhaps more.
..:: India Strategic ::. Rafale will come with fill ToT
 
if india goes for 200 aircrafts the deal could well be beyond 20 billion dollars
 
Rafale will come with full ToT
Paris. French aircraft maker Dassault says that its Rafale would come with full technology transfers to India.
img_1120.jpg


Executive Vice President International Eric Trappier told India Strategic that Dassault was hopeful of winning the Indian Air Force (IAF) competition for 126-plus Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) and that the company would have no hesitation in transferring the “best onboard technologies, both for IAF and Indian Navy if the latter opted for it also for its future aircraft carriers.”
He and his team were in regular touch with the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD), and like the other rival in the MMRCA competition, he was waiting for the commercial bids to open. He was sure, he said, that Rafale would be economical and cheaper than the competition in the short and long run. “We have had a long relationship with India spanning 50 years and we want this to be longer.”
Trappier was also hopeful of the Mirage 2000 upgrade contract to be signed soon. Although most of the upgradation would be done by the technology company Thales, the aircraft were originally sold by Dassault, which now has a substantial stake in Thales.
After the upgradation, the Mirage 2000 would be as good as new Mirage 2005 aircraft, possibly with some better technologies than before.
Thales is providing Electronic Warfare (EW) suites, combat radars, displays, helmet mounted cueing systems and some of the weapons for both the Mirage and Rafale. The latter though would have the advantage of modern AESA radars and possibly Ultra Violet or Infra Red Search and Track (UV or IR ST) systems for well Beyond the Visual Range (BVR) engagement and neutralization of hostile targets.
img_1120i.jpg

These systems would be compatible with most of the precision weapons.
On offer is also the latest Air to Air Meteor missile developed by MBDA.
Rafale was also stated to have lower radar signature due to the integration of its engine intakes with the body. “If you look at it from the front, it is like a bird with natural contours, not extruding inlets.” And the aircraft would have less fuel consumption than others, which would both be economical and strategic in war time, when fuel supplies are invariably in short supplies.
Trappier described the Rafale as an omni role fighter, and said that it was the only aircraft already operating both from land and sea and that its capabilities had been demonstrated both to the IAF and Indian Navy. France’s only aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle, had done exercises with the Indian Navy and also visited Mumbai recently.
Asked about the combat radars and weapons, he pointed out that Dassault’s associate company Thales had already developed and validated the RBE2 AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar and “it would be on board the aircraft ordered by India well in time.”
In fact, there would be other systems and weapons which would also be delivered to the IAF to its satisfaction.
Asked about reports that some of the weapons were available only with the US companies, like the Raytheon High Speed Anti Radiation Missile (HARM), and that even if a company was willing to sell them, the approval would have to still from the US Government, Trappier said that he was hopeful that there would be no problem.
Notably, all the six contestants in the MMRCA fray had promised to meet all the IAF requirements.
There would have to be some diplomatic intervention perhaps at a later stage between the winner and its country/ countries of manufacture as well as the US to secure this arrangement. Maybe India’s goodwill will play a role irrespective of which of the two finalists bags the world’s biggest aircraft order yet.
Indications are that New Delhi would order nearly 200 aircraft, 126 as per the tender, and 63 mentioned in the option clause.
And perhaps more.
..:: India Strategic ::. Rafale will come with fill ToT

Finally Rafale opened there mouth.. this would be a blow to EFT
 
if india goes for 200 aircrafts the deal could well be beyond 20 billion dollars

I don't think there is an if for the option for 200 aircrafts. The if is for the additional aircraft that could be ordered over and above the 200.
 
Asked about reports that some of the weapons were available only with the US companies, like the Raytheon High Speed Anti Radiation Missile (HARM), and that even if a company was willing to sell them, the approval would have to still from the US Government, Trappier said that he was hopeful that there would be no problem.
Notably, all the six contestants in the MMRCA fray had promised to meet all the IAF requirements.
There would have to be some diplomatic intervention perhaps at a later stage between the winner and its country/ countries of manufacture as well as the US to secure this arrangement. Maybe India’s goodwill will play a role irrespective of which of the two finalists bags the world’s biggest aircraft order yet.

A-ha, so much for all the U.S. haters. Seems that the French too are "hopeful" that there will be no problems. Seems we still need to separately negotiate with the U.S.All the talk about how by selecting the French, we were escaping from U.S. clutches seems to be just a mirage. We still need the U.S. it seems, only our leverage is much reduced now.
 
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