Good Service record lead to Mirage-2000 upgrade package

( IDRW NEWS ) : No airframe modification nor replacement of power plant ,with less than 20 years of frontline service left ,2.1 Billion $ upgrade package offered by the French manufacture seemed like a loot of the decade ,but last month MOD and IAF cleared the deal ,which many defence experts thought was a way expensive deal and some even questioned why Israeli offer of Mirage upgrade was not even considered which was going at half the cost ? .
Well a source close to idrw.org from Indian air force ,puts some thought into the whole upgrade dilemma which Indian air force had to go through ,it all begun at the start of the decade when Indian air force and French air force were having air exercise over Gwalior ,where IAF pitched their Mirage-2000H against French Mirage-2000-V .
Air exercise led to discovery of short fall of the BVR (Beyond visual range) limitation on the current fleet of Mirage 2000’s operated by the Indian air force against highly upgraded French Mirage 2000-V fleet .
Process and recommendation for advancing and upgrading Mirage-2000H fleet was taken. French price was too high and still is, Israel Aircraft Industries which had made illegal copies of Mirage-V jets known has “Kfir “ ,had proposed a Israeli avionics upgrade package ,which IAF found not much to their interest .
Source told idrw.org, that good serviceability of the aircraft and high mission availability of the Mirage-2000 in IAF fleet has lead to go with the French upgrade package, Mirage 2000 in last two decade in IAF fleet was the best weapons delivery aircraft and had an enviable safety record, and even Su-30MKI doesn’t have such a distinguished record.
Mirage-2000H was the best aircraft in the IAF Fleet, when Kargil War happened , even do IAF had a small fleet of Su-30K at that time , but it was not used in high Mountain warfare in Kargil ,since Su-30K were more of a air superiority fighter aircraft ,based on Su-27 airframe which lacked Ground attack capability ,until Su-30MKI joined IAF in  2001 .
Dassault Aviation which is the OEM of the Mirage-2000 was not able to reduce the cost, since the production line for the Mirage-2000 had already been closed, and all the upgrade packages for converting Mirage-2000 to Dash V standard, had all ready been carried out by French air force by the time negotiation for IAF fleet came out.
Other factors which might have worked in favour for the French aircraft manufacture. Dassault Aviation was superior after sales support and good supply chain of spares for the fleet in IAF, which when compared to Russian jets was far better. IAF also wanted to keep one of its most trusted fighter aircraft in good shape to meet future challenges ,which IAF might have to face in future conflicts .