Tag: MMRCA

26 by ’26: India has a chance to get new naval fighters quickly, with Boeing’s Super Hornet production ending
Boeing has announced it will complete F/A-18 production by the end of 2025

Boeing has announced the end of production for the U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters in 2025. With no scope for early Rafale M deliveries, here’s how this could become an opportunity for the Indian Navy to get all 26 of its new Multi-Role Carrier-Borne Fighters by the end of 2026.

#RafaleScam: Fallout on MMRCA 2.0
Manufacturers concerned over implications of Rafale revelations

One representative of an MMRCA 2.0 competitor said, “The process is so elaborate, difficult and expensive. If you’re permitting cheating, at least have the decency to not make the rest of us work so hard.” “Just the thought of it being tailored to one of the contestant would discredit the whole idea of a competitive bidding process,” said another.

India’s VSHORAD program off flight path
Defence ministry faces problematic result after 20 years of shopping around

Even after two decades since the acquisition case, the Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) search has seen a system absent from trials and failing trials, being passed as technically compliant and ending up as, apparently, the cheapest. Also problematic is the difficulty its purchase could pose by provoking U.S. sanctions under their CAATSA.

Podcast: Breaking down MMRCA 2.0

Angad Singh and Pushan Das help StratPost editor Saurabh Joshi understand how the new IAF fighter contest will be different from the last one and why it will take two general elections before an order is placed.