Dassault Holds Peace On MMRCA Rumours

Dassault hasn’t reacted officially to reports suggesting that the Eurofighter has emerged the lowest bidder in the final arithmetic of the M-MRCA fighter competition, and is unlikely to do so. I’m trying to get word on what they think and if they’ve heard anything, but it’s unlikely they’ll say much. Meanwhile, rumours continue to swirl. Oh, and does anyone have the 2012 Dassault calendar (that’s Miss February above, the bubble’s mine of course) — it’s among the best mil calendars I’ve seen so far. Have to get my hands on one.

The Mint report also said that Dassault and EADS Cassidian representatives had been called for a meeting scheduled for this evening. Will keep tabs. Could this be the end? (Don’t) hold your breath.

Rafale Art / Romain Hugault

21 thoughts on “Dassault Holds Peace On MMRCA Rumours”

  1. These rumours and sniping from multiple parties raises the vexing possibility that even if the government decides to announces a preferred bidder on Thursday or any other day, it may not necessarily be able to get a contract by March. I don't know if this is just poor planning by the government or craftiness by the MOD to yank out a bigger bargain.

  2. EF has mysteriously appeared as L1 in Mint, which probably relayed rumours previously released in IDRW (much doubt on this source) and the German npp Der Spigel in which EF was not described as L1… The source of Der Spiegel (MoD official) said that the EF could be favored only bc of political reasons, but not for its cost which, he says, is much higher than the French offer.
    Apparently, there is a misunderstanding in the medias between the terms of "favourite" and "L1"…
    Mysterious and boring rumors.

  3. Yesterday, french MoD seemed very confident about MMRCA saying that negociations are going on and there is "no obstacle" to make the deal.

    A mysterious four days trip in Asia, starting tomorrow, has appeared in the agenda of the french MoFA (he is also in charge of Rafale sales). For the moment he is supposed to go to Japan and Burma… We don't know if other destinations are scheduled but it is probably the case in 4 days.

  4. Shiv…is it really a news piece that Dassault hasn't reacted…to react in anything other than "we hope it ain't true" will be to say we know too much and "we hope it ain't true" ..that just aint pretty 🙂

  5. salut shiv ,

    (désolé pour le français mais mon anglais écrit est très mauvais …google traduira )

    le dessinateur s appelle romain Hugault, il a fait quelques bandes dessiner sur la 2 guerre et aussi des couverture de magazine comme le fana de l aviation .

    si ça peut t aider .

    http://www.google.fr/search?q=romain+hugault&hl=fr&prmd=imvnso&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=eAEOT66qCoav8gOjoPGeBg&ved=0CDIQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=856

    http://romain-hugault.blogspot.com/

  6. Shiv,
    – your French is great! (thanks to Google? Come on, Google translate is not so perfect!)
    – no reason for Dassault to react to a single, isolated press article saying "maybe", "perhaps", "can not verify"….No other media reported that since Tuesday. Simple BS PR coming from Vasant Kunj. It will be time to react when the official result is announced and both competitors certainly will.

  7. I sincerely hope, that IAF choses the Rafale.

    Everything is in favour of the Rafale, now only if the french don't pull out something strange again which only they are capable of !

  8. The problem with Rafale are..

    –Dassault is not much flexible in terms of pricing..they seems to only consider the first Base Contract amount…instead of long ter business revenue plan…for example..who much India have spend on upgrades and weaponization of Mirage 2000s apart from buying those first batch of 40 Mirages ? This alone translates to $ 2-3 Bn apart from follow on orders etc.
    Dassalt will need to change their Bussiness model/policy considering First Base Deals + long term revenue plan (includes support,upgrades,follow-on order,co-developments etc possibilities,T-O-T etc).
    –Technically Rafale has two issues vis-a-vis Typhoon…first is small diameter nose cone hence it can't host a large diameter/powerful AESA antenna with more than 1000 TRTs.
    Secondly Rafale's Frontal RCS is significantly higher than Typhoon.
    These two issues I feel IAF too might have considered…By the way in A2A role the best aircraft available other than F-22 is Typhoon…Rafale and Su-30s comes after.

  9. What I said some time ago needs repeating:
    Stealth or no-stealth, 5th generation or 4th generation, fighter aircraft are as obsolete for India's defence as bows and arrows. They can be used against neighbors such as Pakistan and China but the United States is EVERYBODY'S neighbor. It has already invaded and occupied Afghanistan, a part of traditional India and will expand its occupation to the rest of the subcontinent. I am India's expert in strategic defence, the father of India's strategic program including the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program and the world's greatest scientist (my biography is in Marquis' Who's Who in the World, 2011 and earlier editions). The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan means the coast-to-coast destruction of the U.S. by India; see my blog titled 'Nuclear Supremacy for India Over U.S.', which can be found by a Yahoo search with the title, for what India needs to do. Russia and other white countries are U.S. allies. These are the enemies to destroy. All other enemies will be taken care of automatically. Conventional arms are worthless for destroying the United States. Nuclear arms to destroy the United States with a FIRST STRIKE — this is the key — are cheap and easy to produce with technology India already has. All the money earmarked for fighter aircraft etc., and more, must be pumped into research, development and production of missiles able to deliver India's nuclear warheads — in the thousands — to the continental United States. India's missile scientists & engineers should have tested such missiles to their full range decades ago — everything else, including short and intermediate range missiles and missile defence, is secondary and tertiary — but have not done that because of prohibitions by India's C.I.A.-controlled governments. This must be done on a war footing; the first step is to destroy RAW through which the C.I.A. rules India; see my blog. Producing such weapons in the thousands and very quickly is important. This means that the vast majority of them must be land-based, including road and rail-mobile, missiles rather than submarine-based which take a long time to produce.
    Satish Chandra

  10. An indian said at 4:18 pm:

    "Secondly Rafale's Frontal RCS is significantly higher than Typhoon"

    So wrong that in beleive you're doning Typhoon propaganda!

    RCS , fom all points of view is much better on Rafale.

    syntaxerror9

  11. Shatish Chandra mind has left this planet in one of the thousands of India's ICBMs. We do not expect its safe return any time soon.

  12. Hey..Chandra,… do you know how to solve Navier-stokes equation?
    Also why India begs for "seeker" technology for A-V to Russia?

  13. yes i would agree that rafale has lower FCS …

    faar superior IRST though …. 😉

    shivji you seem to be quite the ardent Rafale fan !

  14. Satish chandra has lost his mind. Or may be he belongs to the earth of the parallel universe where india is a badman.

  15. Hi SHiv,

    Found this at grandestrategyhttp://www.grandestrategy.com/2012/01/3939184819-eurofighter-typhoon-wins.html

    regards,

    Sachin

  16. To those friends..who argue on RCS of Rafale vs Typhoon.

    My understanding is ..
    the Typhoon's RCS is around 0.05~0.1 m2 .
    where as the Rafale's RCS is around 0.1~0.3 m2.

    Rafale is more independent choice and it's passive self protection system "SPECTRA"..is a good accessory too.

    But where F-22 beats any other flying machines in the world is it's extremely powerful Passive RWR ANALQ-94 with a range around 400 +KM.
    Just un-imaginable and impossible capability for even any future planes being designed now.
    Ref:http://www.israelmilitary.net/showthread.php?t=1084

    Regards,

  17. @An Indian
    Where do you get these RCS figures from ?
    I'm tired to see this kind of arguments in the comments.
    No one here knows these figures, and those who know will surely keep the secret…
    Will you also speculate on the stealth of a pigeon ? This is simply not relevant stuff to post in here !

Leave a Reply to Ju² Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Scroll to Top