A Super Hornet

New Delhi, April 24: The US and European governments have backed their companies in the race for a $10 billion-plus Indian multi-role combat aircraft order as the competition for one of the largest military contracts in the world enters its final leg on Monday.

Diplomatic heads of the missions of four European governments made detailed presentations to industry representatives and military experts today on the Eurofighter Typhoon being offered by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

Bernd Muetzelburg, the ambassador of Germany, which is leading the Indian campaign, said: “India is invited to become a partner of the Eurofighter programme.”

In the US, the Boeing Company announced that it had today delivered a detailed 7000-page proposal offering its advanced F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to the Indian Air Force. The variant of the aircraft being offered is the F/A-18IN, based on the Super Hornet flown by the US Navy and currently being built for the Royal Australian Air Force.

The last date for submission of technical bids for the Indian Air Force’s requirement of 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft is April 28. But the competitors have two more months to submit proposals for re-investments and offsets that will require tie-ups between the foreign makers and Indian firms. The tender has specified that 50 per cent of the value of the order has to be ploughed back into investments in the Indian defence sector.

The companies are zealously guarding the details of their offers while conducting industrial espionage to suss out the fine print in the bids by the competitors. Every move and presentation by each of the companies is also being monitored by the respective diplomatic missions.

Lockheed Martin (US), which is offering the F-16, RSK MiG Corporation (Russia) with the MiG-35, Dassault Aviation (France) with the Rafale, and Gripen India, a subsidiary of SAAB (Sweden), with the Gripen are to submit bids on the last day. The deadline has been rescheduled once already, from March 3 to April 28.

Bernhard Gerwer, chief executive officer of EADS military air systems, said the Eurofighter campaign in India was “fully supported by four nations (Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK), four air forces and four leading aerospace companies — EADS, EADS Casa, BAE Systems and Alenia Finmeccanica”. The UK’s Royal Air Force demonstrated how it was inducting the Eurofighter and replacing its A3 Tornado aircraft.

Boeing’s president and CEO Jim Albagh said after delivering its bid with the Super Hornet that “we are offering India the best-value, most advanced and proven multi-role combat fighter in production today”. Boeing and Lockheed’s bids are routed through the US government.