Siivet - Wings
Indian Dassault Rafale presentation. Photo agency ANI
India's 126 Medium Fighter Aircraft Tender (MMRCA) is set to be one of the craziest procurement campaigns in military aviation history. Everything here was built according to the canons of an Indian film. Intrigues, collusion, deceit and even natural fights between different groups of lobbyists representing the interests of certain manufacturers. The nominal winner of the tender, the French firm "Dassault Aviation" with its "Rafal" was announced in 2012, but in eight years the Indians received only six cars. Today, only one aircraft is considered fully operational. For comparison, the contract for the supply of the Su-30MKI was signed in 1996, and in January 1998 the first "dryers" with Indian identification marks took part in the air parade over Delhi.
Su-30MKI Indian Air Force. Photo by ANI
But the new products of the Sukhoi company could not take part in the tender, since according to the Indian classification they belonged to a different category of fighters, and the MiG-35 seemed to the Indians raw. And although the previous experience of the joint Russian-Indian development of the Su-30MKI showed excellent results, the Indians opted for a completely finished "French".
Photo by THE HINDU
French aircraft in India also have a history. In 1985, Mirage-2000 (50 pieces) were purchased and they showed good results in joint work with the MiG-29 in the Kargil war. Rafali were acquired to replace Mirages and MiGs and, according to lobbyists, were supposed to make the Indian Air Force the most powerful in Asia. But what looked good on paper and in beautiful virtual presentations has in fact grown into an all-Indian scandal. And it still does not subside.
Photo The Times of India
The first thing that the French rejected was any transfer of technology and localization of production in India. The Indians, who got their hands on the assembly of car kits from Russia, suddenly realized that their Western partners had simply thrown them, taking advantage of legal incidents in a cleverly drawn up contract. But the biggest shock came later when opposition journalists brought out the true amounts of the French contract. Attention - 218 million 600 thousand euros for one plane, which took off for the first time back in 1986. Even the super-sophisticated F-35, as they say, smokes quietly on the sidelines. As India's current Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said in an interview with The Times of India:
"With this money, we could buy three Su and have a guaranteed superiority. And now there is neither the technology promised by the French, nor a sufficient number of fighters. But eight years have passed."
Back in 2015, the first corruption case was initiated, and only the direct intervention of the then French President Hollande allowed the scandal to be hushed up. Now the criminal proceedings have been reopened, and the number of purchased Rafals has been reduced from 126 to 36. Then the opposition publication the Hindu published the revelations of Indian pilots who seriously criticized the Rafali, speaking of its obsolescence, low speed and lack of maneuverability. Then the pandemic began and the production of Indian Rafals was again suspended, which infuriated the current leaders of the Indian military department. But the clauses of the contract left no chance for the Indian military. The penalty for refusing to purchase, like the price of the aircraft, was also astronomical.
The last major problems with the Frenchman concerned air refueling. The system turned out to be so specific that six more Airbus A-330MRTT tanker aircraft had to be purchased for it. And this is at least another one and a half billion dollars to the already fabulously expensive contract.
А-330MRTT photo portal airlines.com
The hype with the purchase of Rafale more and more resembles the saying that there was no problem - they bought a pig. Only the French "pig" is more expensive than the same amount of gold by weight and requires more and more resources for itself. And this story threatens to become endless. Like it and subscribe to the channel if you find the material interesting. Thanks!
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