The spurned vendors and countries failing to receive invitations by the Indian Ministry of Defense to extend the validity of their commercial bids for the Indian Air Force (IAF) tender for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), which expired on Thursday, have issued cautious responses indicating that they do not consider the matter closed and that there is, still, much left to be discussed.
Northrop Grumman Corporation plans to show-off its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems ‘including airborne early warning and control systems for maritime reconnaissance, fire control radars and unmanned aerial vehicles’, at Aero India 2011 in Bangalore, next week.
The flight trials currently underway are not only a test for the selection of aircraft for the IAF, but also an opportunity for the six contenders to set records for a take-off from the highest altitude in the world, from the runway at Leh.
So far, the aircraft was in the week long first phase of trials which consisted of training on the aircraft for Indian Air Force (IAF) test pilots comprising academic exercises, cockpit familiarization as well ‘a bit of flying’, as one insider put it.
Calling the MMRCA important for the company, Orville Prins of Lockheed Martin indicated some of the other contenders in the race to be fighting to survive.
Lockheed Martin has engineered its F-16 fighter to enable it to meet the air-to-air refueling requirements with the ‘Probe and Drogue’ system, a demonstrator of which was displayed at the Paris Air Show recently.
StratPost tweeted facts about the Indian Air Force (IAF) tender for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) and the participating aircraft last week. Here they are on a single page, for easy reference. And please feel free to add any more in the comments. They will be updated on this page.
A cost escalation of 50 percent (INR 63,000 crore, in this case) or more, requires approval again from the Ministry of Finance, before the Defense Acquisitions Council (DAC) can proceed with it. With the cost of the tender for India safely ranging from INR 83,000 crore to 1,25,000 crore, the revision of the estimated expenditure on the MMRCA would require the approval of the finance ministry.
The French Dassault fighter aircraft Rafale has been selected to be the Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) of the [...]
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