$10 bn fighter aircraft deal may be signed before July: Air Force Chief

“(Am) extremely hopeful it will be signed before I retire. The decks are cleared for the deal. The only question now is of signing,” he said at a function organised by the Indian Women’s Press Corps. He said the only delay now could be a bureaucratic hurdle if one of the losing contenders cries foul.

Naik confirmed that the final contenders would be short-listed by the end of this month and would be called for commercial negotiations.

All six contenders for the deal — American F16 and F/A18,French Rafale,Swedish Gripen,Russian MiG 35 and the Eurofighter — are waiting for word from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) which has almost completed the procedure of going through the flight evaluation reports.

It is learnt that the top two contenders in terms of performance are the French Rafale and the EADS Eurofighter,both of which are recently-developed twin-engined fighters. However,the MoD may choose to invite more than two fighters for the next round of commercial negotiations in which the lowest bidder would be chosen.

As per the norms,the winning candidate will be the lowest priced fighter that gets short-listed after technical evaluation. However,the final choice will be made by the Cabinet Committee on Security,which will have the discretion of taking political considerations into account before selecting a fighter.

With the $10 billion deal expected to grow to almost double the figure as the IAF will in all possibility order more than the 126 aircraft specified in the contract,participating nations have been applying diplomatic pressure on India with most visiting heads of state raising the issue at bilateral talks.