DAC clears 126 MRCA purchase for IAF

New Delhi, June 29: The much-awaited clearance for the multi-billion-Dollar purchase of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft for the Indian Air Force was today accorded by the Defence Acquisition Council at a meeting here.

The DAC -- headed by Defence Minister AK Antony -- discussed threadbare during the meeting various issues related to the initial purchase, transfer of technology, licensed production and life-time maintenance support for the 126 MMRCA before giving the final go-ahead for the project, said an official spokesperson later.

With the decks finally cleared, the RFP for the estimated 10 billion dollar purchase was planned to be issued in the near future.

The spokesperson said senior officials of the Defence Ministry and the Indian Air Force had been working overtime to scrutinise all aspects of the RFP following the recent assurance given by Minister Antony for an early issue of the much-awaited Request for Proposal (RFP) for the 126 fighter jets, In view of the size and operational importance of the likely purchase, the criteria for selecting the final MMRCA contender -- from amongst some of the best combat aircraft offered by US, Russian and European companies -- had been fine tuned, the spokeksperson said.

The RFP would contain a selection model that would involve an exhaustive evaluation process as detailed in the Defence Procurement Procedures-2006.

The proposals from the likely contenders would first be technically evaluated by a professional team to check for compliance with IAF's operational requirements and other RFP conditions.

Extensive field trials would be carried out to evaluate the performance.

Finally, the commercial proposal of the vendors short-listed after technical and field evaluations would be examined and compared.

Since the aircraft were likely to be in service for over 40 years, the vendors were required to provide a life-time support and performance-based warranty for the aircraft.

Defence Ministry officials confirmed that great care had been taken to ensure that only determinable factors -- which do not lend themselves to any subjectivity -- are included in the commercial selection model.

''The selection would be transparent and fair'', the spokesperson reiterated.

The DAC further approved that a majority of the MMRCA would be produced in India under transfer of technology. And the vendor finally selected would also be required to undertake Offset obligations in India.

It is expected that the ToT and Offset contracts would provide a great technological and economic boost to the indigenous defence industries -- which would include Defence Public Sector Undertakings, 'Raksha Udyog Ratna's' (RURs) and other eligible private sector industries.

Foreign vendors would be provided greater flexibility in effecting tie-ups with Indian partners for this purpose.

The spokesman said there were three guiding principles for this procurement scheme.

Firstly, the operational requirements of IAF should be fully met. Second, the selection process should be competitive, fair and transparent so that best value for money was realised.

And finally, Indian defence industries should get an opportunity to grow to global scales, the spokesperson added.

UNI