Dassault warns pullout from Mirage 2000 offer
Dated 7/12/2005
Printer Friendly
Subscribe
France's Dassault Aviation has threatened to withdraw its bid from the proposed one-hundred-and-twenty-six multi-role combat aircraft deal unless the Indian defence ministry finalises the choice by 31 March 2006.
Blaming bureaucratic hurdles, Dassault says it would keep production lines of its aircraft offered to the IAF, the Mirage 2000-V, open for three years in case the deal goes through, otherwise, it would be inseparably committed to the French government's joint-strike fighter programme for the air force and navy.
The Indian Air Force's preference for the Dassault Mirage 2000-9 being well known, this has to be seen as a bid by the French to hasten the deal by introducing time constraints. India, on the other had, has hinted at the possibility of a split purchase.
Top sources said that the French government has approved Dassault's stand, and added that without a quick decision, the aircraft price indicated in the request for proposal response would be scaled up.
In any case, the French have indicated a maximum production life of eighteen to twenty years for the Mirage 2000-V, whose technology would be entirely transferred to meet IAF requirements, but the Indian defence ministry believes Dassault is employing pressure tactics to speed the deal, but it would be approved only in the normal course.
So far, the Indian government has tried to balance purchases between the US and France, the Scorpene submarines having been ordered to offset the Boeing 777s approved for Air India, and the multi-role aircraft deal is also turning into bitter competition between America and France.