sancho
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That it might well be but for now it is not as clear as you might wish it to be.(if you see my posts on the MMRCA from before, you would see my initial support for a twin contract between the SH & the Gripen to supporting the Rafale when the choice was made)
Your idea of splitting was rejected by MoD from the start and that for good reasons, because neither IAF nor MoD wanted to increase the number of types and logistics again. Former Air Chief Naik once stated, that an ideal IAF would only need a single type of fighter, but that the aim now is to have 4 to 5 at max (LCA, MMRCA, MKI, FGFA and possibly AMCA). So splitting the numbers would work against that plan, but not only that!
Reducing the number will further increase the unit cost of each fighter, that means even a Gripen would cost well above $100 million each when you buy just 63 of them , while the F18SH would be even costlier. This obviously works against your point to reduce the total cost of the deal and when you add the operational and logistical cost increase, it all would end up closer to the EF total costs.
Not to mention that it gets less attractive for foreign vendors to set up a licence production, if the total number of fighters is lower, that they then will offer less ToT and industrial benefits and so on.
So all in all, this idea would work against anything we actually wanted to achive with the competition!