11:04 GMT, February 15, 2010 defpro.com | Coinciding with the starting signal for India’s largest defence exhibition, DEFEXPO 2010 (15-18 February 2010), a German Air Force Eurofighter fighter aircraft will be heading to India today. However, this aircraft will not be making acrobatic manoeuvres for the visitors of the show but, rather, will be thoroughly examined by the Indian Air Force (IAF) as part of the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) MMRCA programme. The Eurofighter will join India’s ongoing programme, which has been initiated in August 2007 and is currently in the process of testing all participating contenders, to undergo trials until March in Bengaluru as well as in Jaisalmer and Leh. The two latter stations will demonstrate the Eurofighter’s desert and high altitude performance.
As 8ak.in recently reported, the prospects for a success of Eurofighter in India still are difficult to judge, as the European consortium is receiving mixed signals from Indian officials. While there is general consent that the performance of the aircraft is up to the expectations, the pricing reportedly is an issue. Reuters news agency quoted India’s Ambassador, Arif Shahid Khan, saying Eurofighter Typhoon is leading the race to win the new fighter deal with the Indian Air Force. The Ambassador stressed the top position held by Eurofighter Typhoon during a meeting in late January with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Rome.
However, a technical triumph of the Eurofighter in the evaluation phase would not automatically mean that the Eurofighter consortium will be awarded the contract for the 126 required aircraft, worth an estimated 10.4 billion. As 8ak.in explains, EADS (holding 46% in the four-nation Eurofighter consortium) has already had bad experiences with Indian procurement procedures in the past. Despite the IAF’s full approval of the procurement of Airbus tanker aircraft, the Indian finance ministry brought these plans to a sudden end, saying it would be too expensive.
The Eurofighter is competing against Dassault’s Rafale, Saab’s JAS 39 Super Gripen IN, Boeing’s F/A-18E/F-IN Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin’s F-16IL and Russia’s MiG-35. According to the Eurofighter Press Office Blog, the Eurofighter Typhoon offers a broad spectrum of operational advantages to India, such as its adaptability to severe weather conditions, high mission effectiveness and survivability in threat situations as well as considerable in country economic benefits.
Bernhard Gerwert, chairman of the supervisory board of Eurofighter GmbH and CEO of Military Air Systems, a business unit of EADS Defence & Security (DS) said: “We are well positioned in the ongoing tender [...] because the Eurofighter Typhoon is the ideal answer to the threats that India faces.” He added “The aircraft's outstanding operational performance, coupled with low life-cycle costs and a tailor-made industrial partnership offer, make the Eurofighter Typhoon a key contender in India's competition.”
Eurofighter will attempt to demonstrate the aircraft’s claimed advantages at the DEFEXPO show, where its stand will showcase a Eurofighter simulator. A success in the Indian fighter race would be a bonanza for the consortium which is searching for additional export customers since quite a while. Enzo Casolini, CEO of Eurofighter GmbH, told the Indo-Asian News Service: “We evaluate the global demand for combat aircraft in the next 20 years at around 800 units. For Eurofighter Typhoon, we target 300 additional export contracts, with Asia representing a substantial part of these orders.”
So far, the only export successes for the Eurofighter have been Austria and Saudi Arabia. While the Austrian procurement programme suffered from a controversial political and financial debate, resulting in the procurement of only 15 aircraft, the Saudi Kingdom ordered a total of 72 aircraft in late 2007.
As 8ak.in points out, the engine question (always being one of the most prominent field of interest in a fighter aircraft programme) may further support Eurofighter’s position in the MMRCA race. EUROJET Turbo GmbH is not only providing the engine for the Eurofighter but is, furthermore, interested in extending its industrial presence in India (see http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/502/). EUROJET recently announced that, if required, they are willing to transfer their single crystal turbine blade technology to India. According to company sources, the technology transfer is currently not under the scope of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) engine request for proposal (RfP). However, the news service states “it makes commercial sense for India to choose the same engine for the MMRCA that they would choose to power the Tejas.”
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