MMRCA trials to begin in Bangalore next week

NEW DELHI: India's quest to buy 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) will shift gear when the flight trials of the six global contenders will begin in Bangalore next week with US major Boeing's warplane F/A-18 being the first contender.

"F/A-18 will be the first contender to arrive in India for the trails that will begin in Bangalore next week," top IAF officers said here today.

The US' Lockheed Martin F-16s, French D'Assault's Rafale, Swiss SAAB's Gripen, European consortium EADS' Eurofighter Typhoon and Russian MiG-35, the other five competitors for the USD 10-billion deal, will follow F/A-18, not necessarily in that order, for the first phase of the flight trials in India, they said.

After Bangalore, all contending aircraft will move to Leh for high altitude trials and to Jaisalmer for summer trials. "We are optimistic that the trails on Indian soil and conditions of all the six aircraft competing for the deal will be completed before April end next year," the officers added.

The IAF would field a team of two test pilots each, who would carry out the flight trials in the three locations that the Air Force has chosen, they said.

"As per the trial schedule, the first phase involved training of Indian pilots on these competing aircraft in the country of origin. The second phase is the flight trials on Indian soil and airspace. The third phase would be test of specialist weapons that the manufacturers would provide on the aircraft in the country of their choice," they said.