Has Eurofighter forged ahead in India's MMRCA competition?

( by Defenseworld) A flurry of reports in the Indian media quoting unnamed sources have pointed out that the Eurofighter Typhoon has forged ahead of the other contenders in India’s bid to buy 126 MMRCA fighter jets for an estimated $10 billion.

      An expected visit of Britain’s Defence Secretary Liam Fox to New Delhi later this month is seen as sales call on the Indian MoD to further hardsell the Eurofighter to India.

      While one report said Eurofighter was ahead on technical evaluation by the Indian Air Force, another said Eurofighter and the Dassault Rafale had scored more points than the others in the technical evaluation report submitted to the MoD over three months ago.

      However, there is no official word from the MOD and none of the six contenders- Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Eurofighter, MiG, Dassault and SAAB Gripen-have received any communication about the status of their bid. “There is complete silence. We have not heard anything from the MoD after the completion of the flight tests”, a senior Gripen Executive said.

      The MOD has been sending queries to the IAF on the MMRCA competition in relation to the performance parameters and the latter has been responding to it, according to IAF Chief P.V. Naik who was quoted as saying during a news conference.

      Informed sources told Defenseworld.net that the technical evaluation report lists out how each contender fared against specific clauses in the RFP and whether they met the performance parameters as outlined. “At the end of the technical evaluation, there are winners and losers. The winners will be in the shortlist who will be invited for commercial negotiations.” “At this time, we don’t know which ones will be in the shortlist. While some aircraft may be ahead of others on purely technical parameters, issues such as life cycle costs and offsets could complicate matters in deciding the shortlist”, the sources said.