Chinese sources have all along been saying USA was out to sabotage the ongoing MMRCA program and push in their F-35.That should tell India how free they are of the thorny US embrace?
Mother of all weapon deals is set to get costlier
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.
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Mother of all weapon deals is set to get costlier - Lazydesis
We will get when we want. US pushing it but we are no mood to take it. hmm may be for navy 
