Disappointed, But It Ain’t Over: Eurofighter

Eurofighter Statement: India took the decision to select our competitor as the preferred bidder in the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender. Although this is not yet a contract signature and contract negotiations are still ahead, we are disappointed. However, we respect the decision of the Indian MoD. With the Eurofighter Typhoon, we offered the Indian Air Force the most modern combat aircraft available. Based on the Indian Government feedback, we will now carefully analyze and evaluate this situation together with our European Partner Companies and their respective Governments.

Photo / Shiv Aroor

21 thoughts on “Disappointed, But It Ain’t Over: Eurofighter”

  1. Dont know why Typhoon was not selected but in my opinion it is best for IAF because it offered a lot to learn from joint ventures though it had taken a bit long to be inducted but I dont think we are going to have any war very soon….

    Anyway Best wishes for IAF Rafale is not bad either…

    Mrityunjay Rai

  2. Many Indians will be dissapointed too.Typhoon was the hot favourite for MMRCA.Even the IAF admitted this..But seems rafale is the L1 bidder.

    Shiv can u plz analyze whether Rafale choice was correct for India or has the MOD blundered

  3. Ain't over till the contrat is signed but it would be very surprising if Dassault didn't conclude. It would discredit the entire process, exemplary upto now, and the IAF & MOD and go against india's interest (i.e. conclude rapidly for early dilvery).
    While Eurofighter is dissapointed India has made the right choice with the best platform for its many challenges and the more economical of solutions.

  4. Shiv, why in the world did you let this guy Satish Chandra post such absolute tripe on your blog!
    The guy is clearly deranged and is in urgent need of medical treatment!

  5. Well done, Indian air force and MOD. The rule of the game was: cheaper of the two, irrespective of quality. But as it turns out, Rafale is both cheaper and better, as anyone in the fighter business (myself included) knows. Rafale is miles ahead of Typhoon in terms of multirole, system integration and operational combat effectiveness.

    From comments questioning the choice, it appears that some readers are intoxicated by Eurofighter's far superior propaganda machine (their bragging about Libya operations was a masterpiece in that respect, in stark contrast to the excessively low-key French PR despite a few groundbreaking achievements substantiating Rafale's claim to "omnirole" capability), not to mention a few commentators who might be on the payroll of Eurofighter GMBH :-).

  6. Urgent need? Satish Chandra desperately needs medical treatment! 😀 he sounds lyk a muslim hater of U.S.
    Buddy, with boom in India's economy, and downfall in U.S eco, and U.S_china thing, U.S wouldn't like to throw a cocktail on its own face by interfering Indian matters even though sometimes they try very hard :p

  7. Satish Chandra is in need of serious psychiatric help ! The mental asylums in Ranchi won't be adequate, he needs to be sent to a Siberian one. Gosh – the conspiracy theories that some people can conjure up makes my head spin !

  8. Rafael is great , but still like EF which is my choice , still has minimum chances for typhoons to reduce its price in negotiations , EF should utilize it by reducing maximum possible to gain it .

  9. We have got to be careful.EADS will do anything and everything to contest Rafale's selection over the EF.Expect lot of spin and whispers against the Rafale and the selection process and evaluation criterion adopted by the IAF.

  10. Why would India choose EF over Rafale?

    Are the German/UK ready to assist us in future defence programs like the French?

    Neuron UCAV, Nuke subs, the French will be ready to give tech.

    Are the British ready to part with their nuke sub tech. Dont think so.

    Add to that Rafale is cheaper. Why would one want to go with EF then.

    Time to squeeze every bit of tech from the french. they were desperate for a sale.

  11. Apart from the Rafale deal, India should also go for 40 typhoons directly from Eurofighter consortium since both these planes have different capabilities. We have to keep in mind that by 2017-2018 nearly 200 fighter jets(jaguar,mig) will be retired and some will crash(with latest trend). So 126 rafales cannot fill the number of squadrons. In numbers game some more aircrafts has to be ordered.

  12. Rafale won because it was significantly cheaper than the Typhoon. Had the Four nation consortium priced their aircraft a bit lower it still had a chance. Unless the French mess up the whole affair during negotiations as they did in other fighter competitions and thereby failing to register a single export order the Eurofighter could reenter the contest. As there is a saying there are many a slip between the cup and the lip.Unless the deal is signed anything is possible.EADS will in that case lower the price and there could be a U-turn in its favour.

  13. Shiv – how can you allow the racist rants of a pakistani posting as Satish Chandra on this forum. I was of the opinion you filter posts.

  14. shiv u need to block some comments on your blog. Guys like satish chandra are spoiling both your blog and our nations honor.

  15. Well, I would say the Rafale choice was the most coherent choice. Industrially, politically, militarily, and technologically of course.

    – Industrially: Dassault holds the most complete knowhow in military aviation in Europe as a single company, and its only equivalent are americans. Who else has the capacity to build from scratch the most complicated piece of human-build products ? Dassault is one of these rare enterprises that have built a long term industrial heritage, and made balanced choices throughout the history: the Mystere, Ouragan, Mirage III, Mirage F1 & Mirage 2000 are perfect proofs for this. I don't mean that BAe & co couldn't make this, but the Eurofighter programme shows how complicated it is to complete such a project with foreign institutions and keep a long term support from the governments. They failed in a way. The product itself is obviously good, but the industrial complication that resulted showed the limits of a multinational cooperation.

    – Politically: Tough times in Europe now for military programs. The french government as its counterparts made cuts in defence programs, but kept in mind the goal of having a credible military power, and therefore supported the Rafale (many people in france were upset about it). This obviously did not happened in the rest of Europe.

    – Militarily: Indian-French long-time cooperation is the best commercial argument for the sale. Dassault is well known worldwide for its top quality customer service. Highly priced perhaps, but at least 100% reliable. Nowadays, people easily think that one can change things with wishes and hope. Who could guarantee the support of 4 governments to a plane for 40 years ? Military cooperation does not work this way, and the reasonable and durable cooperation between the two partners gave a natural advantage to the Rafale.

    – Technologically: The french rafale hold 17 out of the 23 critical strategical technologies (according to an american typology). The indians are playing cleverly as they will make a huge technological progress. The rafale's systems are considered to be more advanced to those of the EF Typhoon (sensor fusion, EW suite, etc…)

    I think the EF has some very good arguments, and he deserves to be exported as well. But by judging the recent facts (order cancellations from UK, Germany & Italy), the governments of these countries gave the place a huge blow and sent a very negative signal to India. EADS is a huge company, it can offer huge ToT and industrial cooperation to India, but do not forget that a 30% stake is hold by France (as well as 30% by Germany), and the French wouldn't have authorized the company to offer industrial cooperation out of the strict military domain. Many people thought that EADS would give civil aviation cooperation, I personally think that this analysis lacks the element: Who does belong EADS belong to.

    Greetings from Germany & France (I actually live in both countries).

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