NEW DELHI - India on Tuesday invited bids from defence contractors around the world for its purchase of 126 fighter jets in a deal estimated at nearly nine billion dollars. ‘The ball is now rolling,’ defence ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said of the world’s largest fighter plane deal in 15 years.The contenders will have to meet ‘three guiding principles’: meeting the operational requirements of the Indian air force, a fair and transparent selection process and a deal benefiting domestic arms firms. Industry sources say the Russian-built MiG-35 and MiG-29 aircraft and the US-based Lockheed Martin F-16 and Boeing F-18 were frontrunners. Also in the race to replace a chunk of India’s ageing fleet of MiG-21s are Eurofighter’s Typhoon, Saab’s Gripen and Dassault’s Rafale and Mirage. But price considerations have left these contenders at a disadvantage, defence officials told AFP.
Eighteen of the fighters would be bought off the shelf while the remaining 108 planes would be manufactured under licence in India, officials quoting the tender documents said. ‘The Indian air force expects the batch of 18 planes would be supplied inflying condition and deployed at the latest by 2012,’ a senior defence ministry official said.
India would also hold the option of purchasing another 64 fighter jets ‘under the same terms and conditions,’ the official said.
India called for bids as the operational fighter fleet of the Indian air force in 2007 plunged to an all-time low of 576 aircraft, from nearly 750 in early 2000, experts said.
The contract will be the first time India’s huge defence establishment has bought fighters after evaluating rival bids through a global tender. The tender also said the deal would be subject to so-called ‘offset obligations’ -- meaning a large part the cost will have to be spent in India. The Indian military introduced this clause into all major defence deals in the mid-1990s as a way of protecting itself from non-delivery as well as boosting its own domestic armament industry.
IndiaÂ’s Russian-built mainstay MiG-21s are more than 30 years old and spare parts shortages have hit its combat squadrons of British-supplied Jaguar and Sea Harrier aircraft.
With US offerings seen as having a strong chance, the deal could also mark a major shift away from IndiaÂ’s traditional dependence on Russian military hardware. Relations between Moscow -- which meets 75 percent of IndiaÂ’s armament needs -- and India are now bumpy due to a delay in the delivery of a Russian aircraft carrier and bickering over escalating costs.