NEW DELHI — India's cancelation of a $12 billion program to purchase 126 combat aircraft eliminates an opportunity for domestic industry to build sophisticated aircraft based on transfer of Western technology and once again leaves the Air Force without a plan to rebuild its dwindling fleet, analysts said.
Cancelation of the program, in which Rafale had been down-selected in an open competition in response to a 2007 request for proposal, was a foregone conclusion after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced during his April 11 visit to Paris his intention to buy 36 Rafales in fly-away condition on a government-to-government basis, analysts said.
An Indian Air Force official, however, said an alternative plan to beef up declining fighter aircraft strength should have been announced alongside the cancelation of the 2007 RFP.
Vivek Rae, former MoD director-general for procurement, said, "The reason the [medium multirole combat aircraft] deal has been canceled is because they are going ahead with the government-to-government route.”
Sitanshu Kar, MoD principal spokesman, refused to comment on the MMRCA tender.
A brief statement by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in India’s Parliament on July 30 put an end to the program but gave no reasons for the cancellation.
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