BY : TOI

After an excruciating delay, decks have finally been cleared for the formal launch of the 'mother of all defence deals': IAF's long-pending quest for acquisition of 126 multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA).

The RFP (request for proposal), to be issued to the six contenders in the race to bag the deal valued upwards of $6.5 billion, is now ready in all respects, with the contentious and complex 'life-cycle costs' and the 30% 'offset' clause being worked out in great detail.

"The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by defence minister A K Antony, is likely to approve the RFP on Friday. Even if the meeting is delayed for some reason, the RFP is slated for issue in July," said a senior official.

While around 20 fighters will be bought off-the-shelf, the rest will be manufactured under licence in India through transfer of technology, with integration of some Israeli avionics since IAF wants the new jets to be on the "same grid" as its other fighters like Sukhoi-30MKIs, Jaguars and MiG-21 'Bisons'.

Interestingly, apart from 126 fighters, the RFP will also specify that India will have the "option" to go in for 60-65 more jets if required in the future. The six contenders, of course, have been jostling with each other for quite some time now.

They basically fall into two categories. The lightweight ones, in the 20-tonne class, include the Russian MiG-35 (RAC MiG), Swedish JAS-39 (Gripen) and American F-16 'Falcon' (Lockheed Martin).

The heavyweight contenders, in the 25-30-tonne class, are the French Rafale (Dassault), Eurofighter Typhoon (consortium of British, German, Spanish and Italian companies) and American F/A-18 "Super Hornet" (Boeing).

Their capabilities and prices, too, vary. Defence ministry officials, however, stress it will be "a level-playing field", with no compromise being made in technical requirements or costs.

India's geo-political considerations will, of course, also play an important role in the final selection. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself has declared that India's large defence purchases should be leveraged to serve the country's strategic ends.

With the landmark Indo-US civilian nuclear pact lurking in the background, coupled with the aggressively hawking of its fighters by the American government, there is some speculation that F-16s and F/A-18s are already ahead in the sweepstakes. But only time will tell if an American fighter pips others to the MRCA finishing line. It will take a good five to six years for the first lot of the new jets to reach IAF, which is reeling under a rapid depletion in the number of fighter squadrons.

The aviation majors will have around six months to respond to the RFPs, with separate technical and commercial bids in sealed envelopes. First, the technical bids will be evaluated, which will be followed by field evaluation trials of the short listed fighters.

"This will be followed by opening of the commercial bids, a TOC (technical oversight committee) and CNC (commercial negotiation committee), among other things, before the final clearances by finance ministry and Cabinet Committee on Security. The entire process will take over two years," said an official.