After resolving differences on technical issues, French company Dassault and the Indian Defence Ministry inked an agreement Aug. 5 on maintenance of the Indian Air Force's Mirage aircraft fleet.
Ministry sources said a six-month stalemate between the two sides was finally broken when the Indian side acceded to the French company's demands pertaining to charges on liquidated damages.Half of the Air Force's 46 Mirage 2000-H aircraft faced grounding had the stalemate persisted, a service official said.
Dassault had insisted on renewing the maintenance contract only if liquidated charges are calculated at the rate of 0.5 percent of the total contract on a monthly basis. The Defence Ministry wanted the 0.5 percent to be calculated per week.
Sources in the ministry said the Aug. 5 agreement meets Dassault's demand.
Dassault had threatened to take the matter to the courts, which would have led to long delays in Mirage repairs.
The repair contract originally was signed in 1982, when the Mirage aircraft were delivered, and was due for renewal in 2007.
This is another incident that shows the vulnerablity of the IAF's assets which may have to be grounded because of foreign demands and arm-twisting. The Russians started this charade of financial demands, followed by the British. Now it is the turn of the French.Even the US is dragging its feet where Boeing is to provide consultancy assistance in developing the flight envelope of the LCA.
Who is next? Incidents of this sort makes it imperative that our armed forces do not rely too much on foreign products, services and assistance.
Indigenisation is not an overnight process. It is evolutionary. This does not mean that Indian scientists should go about inventing the wheel. They should not expect a 100% indigenised product. Even the US and EU countries do not produce every nut and bolt for their products.
The armed forces should change their mindset and accept indigenous products from DRDO, HAL, etc. with a condition that shortcomings in the product will be rectified and the product would further undergo evolutionary changes in the future.
Demanding for a 100% state of the art defence product when the country does not possess the required sophistication is akin to asking for the moon. Worse still it is like behaving like a spoilt child.
The Army should accept the Arjun as it is and request for the development of a future MBT after a decenct number of the present Arjuns have been delivered. A decent number is mandatory for making the project a viable one. No business entity would undertake to produce a major expensive product that has no consumer demand, especially of a defence nature.
The IAF would be better off if it accepts the Tejas after it is operationlised with the necessary armaments as the LCA was orginally conceived to replace the Mig-21s. It could insist on a more advanced aircraft in its Mk 2 variant. There is no point moaning about depleting numbers in its squadron strength because the 126 MRCA is still a decade away.
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