India to award world's biggest warplane deal on merit

NEW DELHI: India will award the world's biggest warplane contract on merit rather than political considerations following a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, the defence ministry said.

India on Tuesday invited bids from global defence contractors for 126 planes worth more than $10 billion, the world's largest military aircraft deal in 15 years.

"We want the best equipment and this tender is open to all and the nuclear deal has nothing to do with the defence procurement," Defence Minister A K Antony said.

"We are not influenced by anybody and it (the contract) will be based on merit only," he said late Tuesday after tender documents were snapped up by six armament firms from Europe and the United States.

The Congress party-led government is pressing ahead with the nuclear deal with the United States, which offers long-denied Western civilian technology to energy-hungry India, despite fierce opposition from its communist allies.

The agreement is seen as the centrepiece of new, warmer Indo-US ties. Russia's latest MiG-35 and MiG-29-OVT aircraft are locked in a fierce dogfight with US-based Lockheed's Martin F-16 and Boeing's F-18 for the contract.

French Dassault initially showcased its Mirage 2000-5/Mk2 in 2004 but has switched its offer with its more lethal Rafale to replenish India's depleted airforce.

Also in the race are the Gripen-JAS-39 of Saab and Eurofighter's Typhoon. Military experts say none of the aircraft in the race are in the inventory of the technology-starved Indian airforce, which flies an earlier version of the MiG-29 and some Mirage-2000s.

"The scales are very even and only exhaustive field-trials under Indian conditions will see the best aircraft win," an official from the policy-making Defence Acquisition Committee told media. A defence ministry spokesman said there would be little room for political manoeuvring in the deal.

"The exhaustive evaluation process deals with initial purchase, transfer of technology, licensed production and life-time maintenance support for the aircraft," spokesman Sitashu Kar said.

Eighteen of the fighters would be bought off the shelf while the remaining 108 planes would be manufactured under licence locally, with India holding the option of purchasing 65 more jets from the same company.

Despite the promised level playing field, industry sources say the MiG-35 and MiG-29 aircraft and the F-16 and Boeing F-18 are the front-runners.