Dassault Rafale, tender | News & Discussions

[SpArK]

Super Hornet international version testing anticipated
​

26/04/11


Any decisions about flight testing further variations of the F/A-18E/F will take place in 2012, says Boeing. Wind tunnel testing of the upgraded Super Hornet, called the International Roadmap version, is anticipated later this year. Flight testing is contingent on customer interest; thus far no nations have purchased the new version, unveiled last year.


"We have offered in some instances," says Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing Military Aircraft, "so for example, the enhanced performance engine is baseline in our offer in India, because that aligns with what they want this aircraft to perform."

The International Roadmap includes a variety of options, including up-rated engines, panoramic display, conformal fuel tanks and an infrared search and track sensor. The concept was unveiled at the Farnborough airshow last year, and a mock-up displayed at Aero-India in February.

"I can tell you that a number of potential F-35 customers have asked for information, so that they can make the best decision going forward should they need to go in a different direction," Chadwick says.
Several Middle Eastern nations are "in various stages of evaluations" of the Super Hornet, Chadwick says. Though Boeing has not released the identities of or features offered to those nations, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are among the possible buyers in the region.


Super Hornet international version testing anticipated

 

[praveen007]

Combat aircraft deal shortlist to be out soon

New Delhi: The race for the $
10.6-billion contract for 126
medium multi role combat
aircraft (MMRCA) is going to gain
momentum with the names of
the shortlisted candidates
expected to be announced by
the first week of May .
This would follow the
concretisation of offset policy by
the government which will be
released in the next week. The
report of the technical
evaluation tests of the six aircraft
in fray was submitted to the
defence ministry in July last year.
However, since then the deal has
made little progressed even as
Indian Air Force chief Air Chief
Marshal PV Naik asserted in
February that the deal should be
finalized by September.
The ministry sources have told FE
the deal is again gathering steam
with a concrete offset policy to
be in place by April end.
“The shortlisted candidates for
the MMRCA deal would be
announced by beginning of
May,” said a sourcefrom the
ministry.
Following the announcement the
commercial negotiations for the
contract will begin.
The detailed policy is expected to
concretise the opening of the
civil aviation and internal security
in more certain terms, so that
there will be no room for
confusion. The defence offsets
policy is likely to bring in $10
billion during the 11th Five-Year
Plan period (2007-11).
“The changes are likely to
provide invitations to offer
offsets proposals to be issued to
only those vendors who are
validated as technically qualified
by the respective service. The
shortlisted vendor will be invited
for opening of their respective
commercial bids,” a source said.
The ministry’s Technical
Oversight Committee (ToC) is
currently looking at the offset
proposals submitted by the
contenders for the deal.
Currently, both technical and
commercial offset proposals
need to be submitted by all
vendors competing in a tender.
Under the current policy, ToE
will examine technical offset
proposals, and the commercial
offset proposals— submitted as
sealed proposals — will be
opened only when the respective
commercial offer for the vendor
is opened.
According to sources, the
changes are being designed to
help the MMRCA tender
process, which is governed by
the Defence Procurement
Procedure (DPP) 2006 and plans
to seek a legal route for
approval to implement the
revision with retrospective effect.
Simultaneously, their proposals
for transfer of technology,
critical for the rapid
development of an Indian
capability to build advanced
fighters, are also being
examined.

 

[praveen007]

Combat aircraft deal shortlist to be out soon | IAF News: Airforce, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Space, Missile

Combat aircraft deal shortlist
to be out soon
The Indian Express
The race for the $10.6-billion
contract for 126 medium multi
role combat aircraft (MMRCA) is
going to gain momentum with
the names of the shortlisted
candidates expected to be
announced by the first week of
May.
This would follow the
concretisation of offset policy by
the government which will be
released in the next week. The
report of the technical
evaluation tests of the six aircraft
in fray was submitted to the
defence ministry in July last year.
However, since then the deal has
made little progressed even as
Indian Air Force chief Air Chief
Marshal PV Naik asserted in
February that the deal should be
finalized by September.
The ministry sources have told FE
the deal is again gathering steam
with a concrete offset policy to
be in place by April end.
“The shortlisted candidates for
the MMRCA deal would be
announced by beginning of
May,” said a sourcefrom the
ministry.
Following the announcement the
commercial negotiations for the
contract will begin.
The detailed policy is expected to
concretise the opening of the
civil aviation and internal security
in more certain terms, so that
there will be no room for
confusion. The defence offsets
policy is likely to bring in $10
billion during the 11th Five-Year
Plan period (2007-11).
“The changes are likely to
provide invitations to offer
offsets proposals to be issued to
only those vendors who are
validated as technically qualified
by the respective service. The
shortlisted vendor will be invited
for opening of their respective
commercial bids,” a source said.
The ministry’s Technical
Oversight Committee (ToC) is
currently looking at the offset
proposals submitted by the
contenders for the deal.
Currently, both technical and
commercial offset proposals
need to be submitted by all
vendors competing in a tender.
Under the current policy, ToE
will examine technical offset
proposals, and the commercial
offset proposals— submitted as
sealed proposals — will be
opened only when the respective
commercial offer for the vendor
is opened.
According to sources, the
changes are being designed to
help the MMRCA tender
process, which is governed by
the Defence Procurement
Procedure (DPP) 2006 and plans
to seek a legal route for
approval to implement the
revision with retrospective effect.
Simultaneously, their proposals
for transfer of technology,
critical for the rapid
development of an Indian
capability to build advanced
fighters, are also being
examined.

 

[duhastmish]

too late but if they increase the number and off the shelf buying .

the deal might turn out to be OK.

 

[jha]

http://www.dassault-aviation.com/fi...dacteur/Defence/Rafale/Fox_Three_N_14_UK2.pdf

 

[kingdurgaking]

"We have offered in some instances," says Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing Military Aircraft, "so for example, the enhanced performance engine is baseline in our offer in India, because that aligns with what they want this aircraft to perform."

seems all the road leads to the same destination on which we are arguing... Hopefully Dassault is not the culprit too...
though as Indian I am not in support of critical US weapons in the inventory... hopefully MoD does some wise decision

 

[kingdurgaking]

the deal is again gathering steam with a concrete offset policy to be in place by April end. “The shortlisted candidates for the MMRCA deal would be announced by beginning of May,”

So are we expecting some progress in 2 weeks ?

 

[udiptoghsh]

THE WINNER OF THE MMRCA COMPETITION WILL BE EITHER
1.EUROFIGHTER TYPHOON
OR
2.DASSAULT RAFALE
AND THE TOTAL DEAL WORTH WILL BE AROUND 13 BILLION US DOLLARS
THE CONTENDER WHO WINS IT WILL HAVE TO PASS ON THE COMPLETE TECHNOLOGY TRANFER,HAS TO TRAIN INDIAN PILOTS FOR FEW MONTHS,HAS TO SUPPLY ENOUGH SPARE PARTS WHENEVER REQUIRED, HAS TO LICENSE INDIA FOR INDEGINIOUS MAKING OF THE REST OF THE NUMBER OF AIRCRAFTS OTHER THAN THE INTIAL DELIVERY OF NEARLY 20-30 AIRCRAFTS FROM THE WINNING COUNTRY.
THIS WILL ACTUALLY GIVE INDIA THE TOTAL FREEDOM TO KNOW THE TECHNICAL KNOW HOWS OF MAKING THE AIRCRAFT...ND MOST IMPORTANTLY INDIA CAN ALSO INTRODUCE ITS INDIGENIOUSLY MADE AVIONICS,SOFTWARES,RADARS...ND COMPUTER SYSTEMS...WHICH WILL ACTUALLY MAKE THE AIRCRAFT UNPREDICTABLE OF ITS ACTUALL CAPABILITIES TO THE REST OF THE WORLD.....!!!!
THESE CONDITIONS OR CRITERIAS WHICH THE WINNER OF THIS BID HAS TO FULFILL WILL ACTUALLY MAKE THE AIRCRAFTS MORE DEADLY,UNPREDICTABLE,AND MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE IN REAL WAR SITUATION....
BUT THE ONLY BOTTLENECK IN THIS DEAL IS THE ONGOING PROCUREMENT DELAYS BY MANY INDIAN BEAURACRATS,MINISTRIES...ETC....I URGE THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT TO SEAL THIS DEAL AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE....!!!

 

[SpArK]

The M-MRCA In Numbers​

As the M-MRCA fighter competition winds down, I thought it would be nice to put it down in numbers. Do comment with your additions.

6: The number of contending aircraft.

8: The number of competing nations.

126: The number of aircraft the Indian government officially says it wants to buy.

200-220: The number that sundry analysts believe will be the the "real" order size.

$9,500,000,000: The number of dollars (at the current exchange rate) the Indian government has committed to the deal.

$4,750,000,000: The number of dollars (at the current exchange rate) the winning contender will need to plough back into India as offsets.

18: The number of aircraft that will be manufactured by the winning bidder.

108: The number of aircraft that will be cookie-cut under license by HAL at a spanking new facility.

0: What HAL has needed to do to be the license partner in the MMRCA.

3: The number of years it took the government to decide that a competition made more sense than an IAF-recommended purchase of more Mirage-2000s.

4: The number if IAF Air Marshals who openly rue that decision to this day.

4: The number of companies that received the Indian RFI in 2004 (Dassault, Lockheed-Martin, RAC-MiG, Saab).

2: The number of companies that elbowed their way into the competition shortly thereafter (Boeing, Eurofighter).

2 / 1 / 6 / 1 / 0 / 5: The number of air forces that use fly the F/A-18 Super Hornet / Rafale / Typhoon / F-16 Block 60 / MiG-35 / Gripen.

2: The number of contending aircraft with operational AESA radars.

4: The number of contending aircraft that promise to deliver AESA radars better than the American ones.

2: The number of vendors who explicitly state that they will release all avionics/sensor source codes to the IAF as part of any deal.

46: The number of times in 2006-07 that the then IAF chief Shashindra Pal Tyagi was quoted to have said "buying fighters is not like buying vegetables in a market".

242: The number of times Defence Minister AK Antony, in response to questions about the delayed RFP, nodded genially and said, "It is in process".

3: The number of years it took for the government to send out an RFP after receiving information about potential contenders.

211: The number of pages in the RFP that was released in August 2007.

4: The number of defence journalists who claimed to have a copy of the RFP on the day it was released.

0: The number of defence journalists who actually had a copy of the RFP on the day it was released.

(Still counting): The number of times sundry officials from the IAF and MoD have pointed to "front-runners" in the competition.

4: The number of times competing countries have urged abandonment of the tender in favour of a separate exclusive deal. (-- Saurabh Joshi)

10: The number (on a scale of ten) that depicts just how badly IAF chief Pradeep Naik wants the MMRCA contract to be signed before he retires in July this year.

0: The number (on a scale of ten) that depicts the chances of that actually happening.

0: The optimism co-efficient of vendors that the IAF chief's word holds any more sway.

<1: The chances on a scale of 10 of the deal being concluded this calendar year.

22: The number of times the current IAF chief has expressed his pride over the evaluation process, and said he will patent it.

186: The number of times this blog has posted about the competition. Ok, now 187.

~421: The number of misleading leaks, rumours and patent falsehoods that have been deliberately put out by certain officers in the IAF and MoD acquisition wing.

8: The number of times the IAF and MoD have contradicted each other over aspects of the selection process.

112: The number of times the European competitors have described the Americans as "aggressive".

643: The number of test points evaluated on the six aircaft during field trials.

2: The number of years it took for field trials to commence after RFPs had been issued.

7: The number of times Lockheed-Martin took pot shots at the Gripen.

7: The number of times Gripen took pot shots at Lockheed-Martin.

2: The number of fantasy eliminations - Gripen and Rafale - that turned out to be false.

1: The number of times commercial bids have been revised.

10: Chances on a scale of ten that commercial bids will be required to be extended.

11,441: The number of reports about the MMRCA in the mainstream Indian media.

11,441: The number of reports about the MMRCA in the mainstream Indian media that were based largely on speculation.



Livefist: The M-MRCA In Numbers

 

[jha]

Aroor saab seems to have a lot of time these days..He should concentrate on doing some real work..

 

[SpArK]

^^^^
8 : number of times jha critisised Shiv Aroor.

 

[jha]

^^^^
8 : number of times jha critisised Shiv Aroor.

5: No. of times Sparky defended Aroor..

 

[SpArK]

 

[luckyyy]

so , does it between Gripen and F-16..!!

 

[SpArK]

M-MRCA Commercial Bids Expire Tomorrow, What Now?​

The sealed commercial bids of the six competitors in the Indian M-MRCA fighter competition expire tomorrow. I spoke to officials at the six competing companies said they hadn't heard from the government, and were clueless about what happened next. So in under 36 hours, one of the following should happen:

1. The government will in all likelihood asks the six vendors to extend the validity of their commercial bids (though it hasn't asked them at least until the time this post goes on). In the first week of April, the government asked the six vendors to submit revised technical offsets bids. Tomorrow at midnight, the bids expire. In the past, requests for extensions have been provided with fair advance notice. This time, it's 36 hours and the vendors still haven't heard from the government. Foreseeing this eventuality, the vendors have probably kept their paperwork ready for the validity extension. Either way, the government can always ask for the extension after the bids expire, so this deadline isn't really a DEAD-line. Phooey.

2. If procedure permits, the government only requests those found technically compliant to extend the validity of their commercial bids for onward negotiations, and allows the others' bids to expire. An implicit down-select if you will.

3. The government announces its legendary explicit down-select -- fat chance of that happening.

4. The government cancels the M-MRCA tender. Yeah, right.

Livefist: M-MRCA Commercial Bids Expire Tomorrow, What Now?