1. price is a factor we are not saudies
2. that is just off the shelf cost withowt any thing ecxept the internal gun/cannon you have topay for each bullet , rocket missile and even software upgrades
3.yes rafale is easyto maintain and its engines are also not as service hungry as the russian ones ... your correct on that part
4. TOT is the main problem as dassult knows that india wants at least 200 rafales so it wants to produce first three squads totally in france as for MICA & lightning LDP yes MICA has a cominallty but lightning needs more than just source codes and french are asking toomuch price for it
5. we have M2Ks for quite some time and IAF pilots love it so your right to some extend its like upgrading from a spurced up/rally car polo to say a le means LAMBO
6. yes IAF wants rafale as they love french fighters and for a good reason but i drive a maruti swift but would love to have a BMW X6 dosent means i can have it just like that
7.as for the HAL - dassult tussle over TOT well just go thru recent scorpene subs episode ... point is french dont want to share the "real stuff" specialli regarding the complex manufacturing of critical parts like engine , electroniks & wepon intigration & just forget the TOT for SPECTRA & AESA radar
so rafale is a great platform and a great value for money butthey are just a bit toooooo greedy and since the new goverment is not happy with the price as they are not willing to take kick backs to okay the deal (which UPA wasmore than ready)french are playing a waiting game but things are not looking ever since both typhoon & F/A-18 E-F are almost back in race apart from the latest variant of super sukhoi and all three are now okay with TOT (ecxept americans of AESA radar)
wo kya hain na bhai jaan we dont have brotherlli nations or all weather friends who just might give us "soft loans" or maybe a free lunch
...... you know what i mean sir