A panel discussion on the IAF’s M-MRCA fighter contest on Defence Watch, a weekly segment on Indian state-run television news broadcaster Doordarshan News (DD News). Interestingly, the anchor of the segment, popular defence commentator Maj Gen (Retd.) Ashok Mehta, suggested in an opinion piece last week that the Dassault Rafale had been covertly decided as the winner of the M-MRCA competition, and that a certain “high level back channel Italian connection” had swung it. Also see here.
MMRCA Impact !!
US hijacks Dr.Singh’s Kabul visit
http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2011/05/15/us-hijacks-drsinghs-kabul-visit/
is US getting desperate ?????
After MMRCA
Lockheed Martin's fake smile is Out
http://www.flickr.com/photos/usembassynewdelhi/5715760942/in/photostream
LOL !!! 🙂
rajnath singh slaps & misbehaves with nsg commando…this is highly unfortunate..shiv being a prominent defence journo plzz blow the topic..make him apologise atleast..this is very bad. 🙁
Taking into consideration the history of the Gandhi family, more specifically the kick backs in Bofors by Rajive Gandhi, and subsequent other commercial dealing which were fortified by the Italian Sonia, the commentary made in the video could be real. Otherwise Rafale was the first aircraft that was decided to be dropped. Incidentally there seems to be some connection between the French premier wife and the Italian Gandhi Family. The Gandhi family is going to the 10th graha to this country.
Rafele should win & must win the contest
it/s the best suit to indian demand & TOT
Maj Gen Mehta has not thought this through. Ad Subramaniam Swamy is , well, Subramaniam Swamy. Need we say more?
As I mentioned on Broadsword, this logic is funny. Please see:
The premise for this bullshit is Sonia Gandhi = Italian. Carla Bruni = Italian + wife of Sarkozy. So, there must be a backdoor connection!!
By this logic, the Eurofighter should be the one being pushed…. both Sonia and Bruni are Italian. And Italy is part of the Cassidian consortium.
Oh, but wait…. Carla Bruni. though Italian, is more loyal to her husband's country and thus pushes for the French plane rather than the one that is good for Italy… but Sonia, long time citizen of India, still remains loyal to Italy. Damn!! Now, lets not forget that Sarkozy is of Hungarian origin…. he must be pushing for Paprika exports to India, despite our more fiery Guntur red chillies..
By extension, if Boeing had been downselected, someone would have come up with Rudy Guilani's or Leon Panetta's Italian roots to make a connection to Sonia….
Downright bullshit.
There was also a programme on the MMRCA deal(Impact on Indo-US relations) on CNBC-TV 18 hosted by Karan Thapar "India Tonight".
Ashok Mehta's allegations are all bullshit! There will be conspiracy theories no matter which fighter is decided!
India simply doesn't know how to move forward anytime.
For everybody's information:
Fighter Generations
The definition of fighter generations has long been subject to debate. However, most agree that the generations break down along these broad lines:
Generation 1: Jet propulsion (F-80, German Me 262).
Generation 2: Swept wings; range-only radar; infrared missiles (F-86, MiG-15).
Generation 3: Supersonic speed; pulse radar; able to shoot at targets beyond visual range (“Century Series” fighters such as F-105; F-4; MiG-17; MiG-21).
Generation 4: Pulse-doppler radar; high maneuverability; look-down, shoot-down missiles (F-15, F-16, Mirage 2000, MiG-29).
Generation 4+: High agility; sensor fusion; reduced signatures (Eurofighter Typhoon, Su-30, advanced versions of F-16 and F/A-18, Rafale).
Generation 4++: Active electronically scanned arrays; continued reduced signatures or some “active” (waveform canceling) stealth; some supercruise (Su-35, F-15SE).
Generation 5: All-aspect stealth with internal weapons, extreme agility, full-sensor fusion, integrated avionics, some or full supercruise (F-22, F-35).
Potential Generation 6: extreme stealth; efficient in all flight regimes (subsonic to multi-Mach); possible “morphing” capability; smart skins; highly networked; extremely sensitive sensors; optionally manned; directed energy weapons.
is anyone here getting tired of the italian connection..i remember before the results,many analyst said that certain pm will influence the decision by selecting the U.S…this whole shit is bs
Tug of war between EuroCommunism and AmeroCommunism. Lol…
A clueless, retired Army General should not comment on matters that he is clueless about. Neither is he a pilot nor is he current. They why on earth should he open his gaub and muddy waters.
Heberian, you are spot on. We Indians are obsessed with Sonia Ghandi not for her ability to turn around a lack-lustre Congress and being magnimous by giving the premiership to MMS but for what her ethnicity is. We should realize that she is an Italian by birth but an Indian citizen not because she married an Indian but because she became one after being a resident in India for donkey's years. SHE DID NOT GO BACK TO ITALY AFTER THE DEATH OF RAJIV GHANDI.
Having said the above, Americans of diverse ethnicity are given the rights and previliges as citizens of the country without taking into consideration where they originally came from.
What is wrong with us? We seem to be bogged down in ethnicity, caste, cred and whatnot.
Let us all mega defence deals. Losers will and have created a ruckus after being sidelined. These are the idiotic vendors and their local henchmen who create scandals. I can understand the foreigners for creating scandals for losing out billions of dollars as well as the jobs their countrymen would have enjoyed. What is pathetic about we Indians is that we don't see what the country might lose. We are only interested in the backsheesh the deal would have brought us.
Conspiracy theories and scandals are the norm rather than the exception in India. India should move on and acquire the best fighter based on IAF recommendations and not because some misguided soul rants and raves because he has not been given his toffee to suck.
In any event, the Rafale and Eurofighter were selected by the IAF, not the PM or Sonia Gandhi. Better get this straight! All suckers who propose any conspiracy theory should be strung and flogged! This Subramaniam Swamy idiot needs to get his butt kicked.
And just to let you know, Rafale is a superb fighter! Rafale may not be a Generation 5 or even a Generation 4++ fighter, but Generation 4+ is all that India is getting. Take what you can, else you won't even get this much!
As per the Pogo Cartoon: "We have met the enemy and he is us". The problems in MMRCA acquisition will be due to our people not doing what they are supposed to (evaluation of air-crafts and bids) or by people making inappropriate statements without evidence and stirring the pot. Either way, if MMRCA falls, it will be due to our own folks. Foreign companies will only follow the lead that we provide, not the other way around.
This is why, when the 4 vendors were rejected, we should have provided the evidence and made public statements with some objective statements (do not have to share all the details) but it could be the score during the evaluation stage, the preference of the air force, etc. Air-force was initially saying that all air-crafts performed satisfactorily, so what happened? Were they not telling the truth? If they did not want to reveal the truth, all they should have done is not said anything. People who have nothing to do with MMRCA make statements in the media and the ones who should know make inconsistent statements. This again shows that we do not know the PR game. All these make up look like we do not know the difference between our rear-end and a hole in the ground.
Ajai Shukla's blog also mentions some inconsistencies in the technical evaluations, may be these are just rumors, but GOI need to address this head-on and do it fast. Something tells me this will not happen.
Singapore, South Korea, the US itself, + many many countries do not provide to the public their internal evaluations of tenders. Doing so may in fact reveal state secrets if desired characteristics/ capabilities are meant to be kept secret. Releasing some `synopsis` has NO productive function, and again, many many countries DO NOT do such a thing, without problems or complaints.
India effectively short-listed 2 contenders, and the rest were not considered technically satisfactory. What more needs to be said?
Now, if anybody has access to the earlier commercial bids, and knows that Rafale or Eurofighter had a lower price before, it`s a good bed that the same company will still have a lower offer. Though that`s not a 100% thing. But that`s the nature of this competition, of qualifying bids, the lowest bid wins. If that happens to be Rafale, is that it`s FAULT somehow? Hardly.
So with all that as background, what bribery would Rafale be engaged in? They AREN`T going to win unless their offer is cheaper… The whole point of such a procurment process. If this guy has any evidence, he should speak up. Otherwise, this seems fodder for a libel suit. I don`t know why Sonia Gandhi plays along with this.
The mail id given by you does not respond.
Anon at 2:13 AM
There is no way Dassault had the lowest bid. I do not think price was the only factor. I agree with you that details of why a vendor was shortlisted and others not should not be revealed, but they should provide some info as to what was the focus of the evaluations. Whithout that there is no way to know that the process of competative bidding was even fair. Dassault may have featured a superior product compared to the four not selected, but the GOI does have an obligation to inform at least the 4 that were not selected with some information on where they fell short. The thing about competative bidding is to lay out the criteria up-front and the selection should be solely based on those criteria, and nothing else. GOI may have done exactly that, but until they come-out and tell the 4 vendors (which they claim to have not received any specifics of why they were rejected) this is not a real competative bid situation. If GOI did it properly, they should inform the rejected party with full and proper information. And, if GOI has done that, they should come-out and disclose that they vendors where provided with the following reason (they do not have to state what specific criteria in public, but they can provide some score for technical factors, score for TOT, score for other factors, etc.) There is no point in competative bidding if the bidder is not going to have an assurance of a fair treatment….. again I do not say that GOI did anything unfair, but now that there are questions, they do need to provide some answers, and until that happens this things will linger around for a long time. GOI is the only one that can put an end to this. If all was OK, just come out and say so, if there were irregularities, come-out and confess, hold the guilty party accountable and move on from where the ball was dropped. But, all this requires a political will and a strong back-bone; neither of which are found in our babus and decision makers.
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