Dear Dadeechi, the decision for defense purchase is made by the political leadership and yes they ask the military for their requirement and priority. IAF had asked for 126 mirage 2000 but our RM decided to open the tender in which six contender participated. Now there is a line which has to be made between the civil political leadership which will make the final decision, cost, negotiation which is made with political benefits, financial conditions etc, and the military leadership that draft the requirement, tests, and priority and their decision depends on the shortfall, requirement, enemy capability accessing etc. Now if you want to give the military whole-sole power for the deal than
IAF could demand F22 also. So there should be some mechanism for this i.e military drafting the requirement and political leadership makes the deal. Now if the Military is not happy or they are forced something else then they should ask thru proper channel from the govt. and not thru the blogs or the forum and the govt. should be force to answer the reason for the same. The IAF's goal was to test all the aircraft and find out which was the best one suited to its needs. Another truth is that none of the aircraft - even the Rafale and the Eurofighter - met all the parameters that the IAF wanted. The Eurocanards were the closest and thus by virtue of merit, they were selected to move on to the next stage which was cost negotiation, in which the IAF plays no part whatsoever.
Now this is my view and you might or might not like that but whatever the bluff have been put in the history should be studied and take the lessons from them.
1. Comparing the cost of the upgrade cost of mig29 and mirage 2000 will not take us anywhere and since both are different planes, there are different variable like avionics, fireand control system upgrade, engine upgrade, strengthening of airframe, sensors etc do you really believe all are same. If the cost of upgrade of mirage2000 is mammoth its called the negotiation and obviously dasault wants the bigger chunk and govt would like to save each and every penny. By the way there was another option for that Israel who was ready to carry out the upgradation.
2. Do you really know all the ifs and buts of dassault for moving the entire mirage line to India ?? Even I wonder sometime that India have lost the opportunity for rejecting that offer but there are many people who will say the opposite. If the govt. is going to listen to everyone that no decision could be made
3. 36 fly away for quick delivery for the sinking squadron number of IAF. G-G deal is always better for the cost to be the lowest but if you want to give some pie to your indigenous industry than the other route.
4. For T-90 the one that could answer the best was our former late PM and whose legacy is carried by his son who was away for 3 month deep meditation on some unknown place. T-90 was inducted with many deficiency which our forces wants to rectify with T-90MS and upgrades.
5. Reliance ? you know I never like it nor I like when she got the mumbai metro project: Why wouldn't Delhi Metro with experience under her belt? What reliance did they consult the chinese for supplying the metro coaches and engines, hired engineers and experts and voila Mumbai Metro. Even a man money but with no knowledge or experience could start Kingfisher Airlines only thing he have to do is to hire the pilots, technicians, personals, beutiful hostess and hire/leased aircraft. If you are searching for the answer than the answer is
MONEY.
6. MONEY more MONEY