By Franz-Stefan Gady
Is the ‘mother of all defense deals’ finally dead?
Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar confirmed on Sunday that India will only purchase 36 instead of 126 Rafale fighter jets from France, an announcement that appears to finally bury the much hyped “mother of all defense deals” for good.
The 126 Rafale aircraft are “way too expensive” and “economically unviable and not required,” the defense minister told local press over the weekend. Purchasing the fighters would have been “a very steep slope to climb financially (…) we are not buying the rest. We are only buying the … 36,” Parrikar added.
Yet India could still purchase an additional 20 Rafale jets at a later stage, local media speculated recently. This was fueled by Parrikar’s statement to reporters last week that he is not definitely ruling out additional purchases: “I’m not saying we will buy more Rafale; I’m not saying we will not buy more.”
On Sunday, however, he made his strongest comments so far that the Indian defense budget won’t support the acquisition of a large new fleet of fighter aircraft: “I also feel like having a BMW and Mercedes. But I don’t because I can’t afford it. First I can’t afford it and second I don’t need it.”
According to Indian press reports, the price tag for the now-scrapped $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project went up “2.7 times” from the original cost proposal.
Read the full story at The Diplomat